When Worlds Collide
by Imperadork
Summary: One year after the opening of a third spirit portal in the heart of Republic City, another portal appeared on the mountains surrounding the city but it did not lead to the spirit world, it lead instead to the forests of Hürtgenwald, Germany. With war over the horizon, it will cause destruction on a scale far greater than that of the Hundred Years War. (Real world VS LOK)
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Avatar Aang finally had the time to rest after the whole day dabbling in politics to ensure that the formation of the United Republic of Nations would not go awry. The last time the Fire nation and the Earth kingdom fought was at The Battle of Yu Dao a decade ago, the coalition government that exists now with representatives from the Earth and Fire nations were going along peacefully... for now. He was at peace with them, yet within him he holds fear of events that may undo his life's work. Events such as that that happened in Yu Dao that lead to the battle, the fire lord withdrawing his support or even infighting among the ranks of the fledgeling nation. Yet for now he wanted peace, somewhere to meditate and to calm himself down... away from all the politics and lies.

 _Maybe the mountains._

He thought to himself, he had never went to one of the mountains surrounding the city and yet it always held a special draw to him as if there is some spiritual connection to be had. The draw was never powerful enough though, he had no time to ponder on such things as being an Avatar he had duties, people to protect. Yet today was a special day he thought, maybe just maybe he'll go there once to see and have a feel for the place before going back. People barely go to the mountains so it could be an excellent place to be at peace and meditate without the noise of the small yet booming city.

He wanted to bring Katara with him, but he thought otherwise.

 _It'll only be and hour or so and there is no need to drag her up the mountain and just watch me mediate away._

But that had happened before, when they were younger and new to the idea of dating. Endlessly thinking about each other and enjoying every moment they had but now just like any couple they felt comfortable with each other and at the same time Katara herself have work to do. She had built and maintained one of the first hospitals in the city and with so many patients to treat it wouldn't be fair for them to take their healer away for some outdoor activity... it will have to wait.

But what Aang needed and wanted now is to meditate so he finally decided to go alone, popping his glider he flew away from Air Temple Island and headed south east towards the mountain. On his way there he had a sight to behold; beneath him was the city of his creation, the place where all forms of people are welcome be it fire benders, earth benders or even non-benders, a melting pot of culture and knowledge.

He grinned knowing that what he had created here could foster peace and harmony throughout the world. As he flew closer to the mountain it felt strange... something was off. He didn't know what it was or where it exactly is but he could feel... suffering.

 _Strange, I never had this feeling before. I never felt it during the Hundred Year War so why now?_

As the mountain come closer and closer the sensation was too much to simply ignore. It wasn't the spirits... it can't be, spirits don't roam in this world and yet it was calling to him, almost like it wanted him to come there. He circled around the mountain looking for a landing spot to come down and found a small open ground immediately in front of the cave about halfway up the mountain.

 _That cave... somethings off... I... I just don't know what._

Landing as gently as he could wishing not to startle any creatures that may reside there he sat down and tried to relax but couldn't, the cave... it was drawing him in. Something's in it and he doesn't want to know, yet at the same time he was curious.

Against his own better judgment he got up and went inside and bent a small ball of fire to see in it. The walls were dry and rugged just like what you would expect from a cave, he looked into the darkness but saw nothing. He walk deeper and deeper into the cave with the light from the outside getting smaller and smaller, he threw a fireball into the unknown and was surprised that he had actually made it to the end.

 _But if this is all... what in the world and I still feeling?_

He asked himself, looking around the place trying to find answers... but there was none. He thought for a moment.

 _Maybe I should try meditating in here, try to find out what this is all about._

He was unsure on meditating in a dark and scary cave but he was a man now and the Avatar nonetheless. He could handle anything that might come at him in here, if it collapsed he could earth bend his way out, if someone try attacking him he could just go into the avatar state and fight them all out. Yet inside him lay the fear all men have regardless of age, race, or bravery... the fear of the unknown.

He finally sat down, extinguished the flame, and tried his hardest to meditate and forget about the fears that he had. Time went by, minutes into hours and hours into almost a day yet he had no answer.

 _I could come back some other day or... or it could just be all in my mind? Stress, yes stress was just too much... I should really rest._

And yet he refused to give up, he wanted to know... he NEEDED to know what this is about.

 _Five more minutes, if there's still nothing then I'll have to go back._

He stayed, five minutes turning into ten and ten into twenty but still nothing. He was just about to give up when he started seeing visions... visions that he could not understand, things that are literally out of this world. He saw people fighting, dieing in the thousands.

He saw men clad in olive green holding weapons made of wood and iron that breath fire from its point fighting men in gray who were armed with the same form of weapons on some snowy place he had never seen before. He also saw iron beasts with long noses that also breath fire with men inside of it, controlling; explosions everywhere with men dieing in the arms of their friends; flying airships that does not have ballons dropping some kind of iron object, exploding when it hit the ground. The death and destruction was unbearable.

 _What is this... is this the future? Not even the fire nation have these kind of power during the hundred year war. Sozin's comet... even the power that it grants to the fire benders pale in comparison to what I just saw._

He snapped out of it, panting just as if it was a nightmare. He hurriedly got up and ran out of the cave, he needed to tell Katara about this, what he saw.

 _It wasn't a dream... it can't be. Its a vision and I know it but of what?_

Questions, questions that needed answers. But where will he find them? Meditate more and hope something comes up? Try to go to the spirit world and ask about it? Or maybe even try locating the lost library in the Si Wong Desert and look for answers there. He doesn't know, but what he needed to do now is to go back to air temple island. The sun was already setting and Katara would be worried sick that he hadn't come home yet, the questions will have to wait. Someday it will be answered, or maybe it will never be like all the great mysteries of this world.

* * *

 **Concurrently in another world**

2200H December 12, 1944 Hürtegn Forest, Germany

It was the end of another day in the offensive, the Americans took several key towns from the Germans and had been consolidating their lines for the evening. Sergeant Dan and his squad was tasked to patrol around the perimeter to secure the lines while the rest of the men settled in for what little rest they have.

They started the patrol by trekking into the cold winter darkness not knowing if the Germans would counter attack or not. Everyone was in high alert and even though no one used any form of light source the moon was bright enough tonight they they could more or less see where they're going.

Ten minutes into the patrol they ran into a cave.

 _Cave in a forest, not really rare now is it._ The sergeant thought to himself but there was something with this particular cave, the entrance was large and circular as if someone had dug into the small hill.

"Sir, sir we should get going." One of his men remarked as they saw the sergeant standing still and staring into the cave. "Sir is there something wrong." the man said again in his thick Jersey accent.

"Nah Jackson its fine, its fine." The sergeant replied but he knew it wasn't. Something's wrong with this particular cave but he doesn't know what it was. He had not heard of any local folklore from the civilians about this forest, then again they can't speak english and even if the civilians did they would have just brushed them off as simple folklore, nothing but myths and legends.

"Sir we need really need to move, we still got a lot to cover." Jackson reiterated.

"Ok, ok but..." he paused. "This cave... something's not right."

"Sir are you crazy? There's dozens of other caves in the area and... and..." Jackson felt something, strange yet familiar. He looked around and saw the rest of the squad also have the same looks on their faces as he have. "Did you guys felt that?"

"Yeah... what the fuck was that?" Replied one

"It felt like it came from that cave." Said another.

Jackson looked at the sergeant, maybe he isn't crazy, or maybe everyone's getting crazy. But the feeling lingered on unwilling to part.

"I don't like this sarge, its giving me the creeps." One of the men said

"You got your flashlights?" The sarge asked

"Yes sir." They replied in unison

"Well come on then get them out, we'll be going into the cave."

"What the hell sarge, no way I'm going into that fucking place." Jackson protested

"Fine, if you want then just wait for us out here then." The sergeant replied with a smirk. He knows Jackson hates the cold and the darkness and combining both of them...

"Goddamned it sir." He grunted before taking his flashlight out and following the squad into the cave.

The men walked into the cave and opened their flashlights once they deemed themselves too deep into the cave for the light to be seen from the outside. They clenched their weapons tightly not knowing what will meet them in the dark abyss of the cave.

 _Could there be Germans hiding in here waiting for the right time to ambush us? Maybe we would wake a hibernating bear, or maybe some mines set by the Germans before they left?_

The thoughts of ambush ran wild in the sergeant's head, he strained his eyes trying to look as far into the cave as he could but it was empty and no sign of any end. The air around them became colder as they went deeper into the cave with the blank walls suddenly giving away to some form of cave paintings.

"Look sir, paintings. Made by cavemen?" One asked.

The sergeant stopped and shined his flashlight at the painting and stepped closer to have a look. It doesn't look like those he had read before in the libraries, they have paintings of men, animals indigenous to the area, and possibly their tribal symbol but these... these were different. There was one in blue which looked like waves, another in red which looked like fire, the next one in white have three circular pattern arranged in a triangle and the last one in green which was looked like an open trapezoid with lines within it.

 _What the hell are these? These doesn't look like those tribal stuff I've read in the libraries._

Beside these strange symbols was writing, some kind of script that he had seen before somewhere. He shined his flashlight in it determined to find it out, it looked very much like the Japanese writing he saw in the propaganda posters back at home but this one's different.

"That's Chinese... Sir." Chan, the half blooded Chinese in the group remarked

"Chinese... why the fuck is it here? Its like on the other side of the world for christ's sake."

Chan just shrugged. The sergeant was at a loss but decided to scribble the symbols and the Chinese characters down. "Chan, do you know what it says?"

Chan moved froward trying his best to read in the horrible lighting condition. "He who enters the void shall fave the power of the a... avatar?"

"Avatar? What the hell is that? Some kind of Chinese monster?"

"I don't know sir, I've never heard of it myself."

Strange the sergeant thought but they must continue onward. Turning around he started walking farther into the cave before it came to an abrupt end. "Is this it? It just ends?"

"Yeah... sir" Jackson replied.

"No, no I can feel it. Something's on the other side of the wall, its so close yet so far."

"Sir it'll be best if we get back on patrol, if we don't come back they might sent another one to find us."

The sergeant thought deeply, should he continue selfishly or with the mission? Its his squad's duty to warn the rest of the company in case on an attack and if they fail...

"Fine lets go back but lets mark it down on the map first so that the general... or whoever might be interested in this could find it."

"Sir... you're thinking of coming back here don't you?"

The sergeant can't deny that, he did and in fact he wish he cold come back after the war's over and maybe bring with him a few friends with several sticks of dynamite to blast through. "Yeah Jackson I do. But for now we need to get back to patrol, tell anyone if you want to I don't care. Its just, hopefully someone, someday can discover what really is inside this fucking cave."

* * *

 _ **Notes:**_

 **Prologue**

 **Book I - Union (1st person POV; 12 chapters)**

 **Book II - Blitzkrieg (3rd person POV)**

 **Book III - Politik (3rd person POV)**

 **Book IV - Pending***

 **Epilogue**


	2. 101: First Contact

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: First Contact**

"Seventy years... Seventy fucking years and nobody still have any fucking clue what these symbols meant. My father dedicated his life's work to discover who put it there and when they were painted, he died still not knowing the answer."

"General?"

"Here take this."

"Its a permit valid for one week to enter the Hürtegn Forest... Sir?"

"Yes, its also a direct order from me, you're a civil engineer ja?"

"Umm yes sir, but..."

"And you know how to do surveying, yes?"

"Yeah..."

"Good, I want you to pick up some equipments and start mapping the cave. There would be a three-d scanning thing which could scan the place a lot easier than to draw the whole thing down."

"But general, shouldn't this be like archaeologist's work? Or maybe even an anthropologist like your father?"

"Yes but... I want it, for myself and my colleagues who take large portions of their times analyzing those symbols. I've read through your files and I know that you're also interested in them, yes?"

"Yes sir."

"Good, so this would technically be a legal mission for you so you shouldn't worry being checked by MPs on the way out of the base and also try to lessen telling people about this, understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Good now the exact coordinates are in the envelope, all you need to do is type that in your GPS and you'll be underway, I'm going to lend you a Mercedes-Benz 250... Try not to damage it. Anymore questions corporal?"

"No sir."

"Well get to it then... dismissed"

* * *

General Braun, he's got quite the obsession in finishing his dad's work about those symbols in the cave. His father, a famous anthropologist, had traveled all the way to China no less in his expeditions to find out if there are links between this painting and others there. His father's life rotated around these symbols and its implications, some say aliens did it, other say that just random people drew it and the Chinese characters were then later sketched on. Yet carbon dating suggested that the paint used was well over four thousand years old, far older than the Chinese characters and for the paint to last so long and in pristine condition was also a mystery.

Getting out of the office I didn't really knowing what to feel. After standing around for several seconds I got out of the building and proceeded back to the barracks with the envelope tucked under my arms. I changed my clothes from the service uniform into fatigues and afterwards went to the armory, got get my H&K 417 and the rest of the gear like helmets and vests just in case some bears or other animals attacked me in the forest. I then got to the depot to fetch the car that the general told me.

"Hey Geraldt! How's it going?" A technician asked.

"Same same, hey the general's got me something." I handed him a piece of paper form the envelope. "He says its a Mercedes-Benz 250."

He looked at it for a moment before remarking "Yeah it is, it is, I've got it here, c'mon." He motion for me to follow him

He led me to an open area with dozens of other 250s and some under maintenance.

"Here we are, this one's yours." He smiled.

"Hmph, looks alright I guess." I walked around the car just observing it.

"All you need to do is sign this and you're good to go."

I frowned. "Isn't the paper good enough?"

"Yes yes it is, but in case it got fucked up we'll know who used the car."

"Ugh fine." I signed the paper and afterwards he saluted me.

"You're good to go corporal, see you around." He smiled before getting back to work.

After, spending few minutes trying to figure the control of the car I drove out of the depot and onto the gate of the base. The MPs were looking at me suspiciously as most of the times convoys arrive or leave and not a single car with a single occupant in full battle gear. Pulling out beside the small guard house one of the MPs came forward and asked for IDs and the permit in which I gave him.

"Corporal Tchaikovsky?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"So you're going to... 'deliver' some supplies for the general?" He eyed me suspiciously.

I shrugged "General's orders, he signed that paper right?"

He looked at me for almost a minute before he was satisfied I wasn't fucking around with him, he called onto the other guard on the small house to open the gate, returned the papers and saluted me. "Stay safe corporal."

I smiled and saluted back before driving off. Driving for several minutes , the roads were more or less empty as I got onto the autobahn so I floored the gas. First thing's first is to get the equipments, I opened the envelope and looked for the address. _H_ _ü_ _rtegnwald? That's actually pretty close to where I need to go, n_ _ow lets see, from here to... these coordinates, how far is it?_ The screen of the GPS came to life and after a few moment to load up, I entered the coordinates and viola! Its telling me the exact route to follow. _Two hundred and forty kilometers? I'll get there in like an hour and a half or so, nice... But then I'll need to hike for over an hour with all the stuff... hmph._

I followed the instructions of the GPS to the word and arrived safely at the first destination in around ten in the morning. _One and a half hour, just as estimated._ I looked around and realized that this was just a small town. _That means quicker to find the address then._ Moving slowly and squinting my eyes trying to locate the address I finally found it after just about ten minutes. It was the size of your average house with two floors, orange roof tiles, but no garage. I got out of the car and straightened my uniform since I don't know who I was supposed to meet, all I need to do is to show them the paper and they'll give me the equipments.

I casually walked towards the door, rung the doorbell, and waited for a response. _Its a minute already, I think I'll ring it again just in case._ I rung it again, nothing. _Hmm, maybe they're away?_ I was looking around the place trying to get a feel of it before I heard people talking inside.

"Honey can you get the door? It might be him."

"Fine but just this once old man."

The door opened and a woman in her late fifties greeted me.

"Hi! You must be the one General Braun said was coming."

"Uh, yeah... yeah I am... here's the stuff that he said I need to get." I handed her a piece of paper. She looked at it for a while before a grin appeared on her face.

"Ah yes yes, all the equipment you need are here and packed, come in! come in!"

I initially refused as I was still wearing my dirty combat boots while their house looked squeaky clean but they didn't seemed to mind at all. She then showed me two boxes with handles before an older man came.

"Hey there! So you're the errand boy for the general this time huh?" He patted me on the back hard enough that I almost lost my balance. "So here's the stuff..." He pointed at the slightly larger box. "This one's got the scanner and its expensive as hell so please return it to me intact alright?"

"Yes sir." I replied. He then pointed to the smaller box.

"This one's got all the other stuff like tapes and spirit levels, and this tripod..." He pointed at a tripod around a meter in length. "Isn't very heavy and its legs are extendable, since you'll be holding the boxes with your hands I advice you to strap it to your bag."

"Yes sir, thank you sir. So... I should get going now."

"Wait, we should get you a drink first!" The woman exclaimed.

"Thank you for your offer but I must decline, I need to get going if I want to finish it in... umm... A week."

"Ah, yes a week. Take care of my babies would you? It'll be a shame if the general needed to pay for the equipment." The man winked

"Yes sir I will."

He patted me on the shoulder before I went and picked up the boxes and the tripod. Struggling my way out of the house with the tripod being balanced on both of the boxes I was relieved when I finally got to the car and put all of them in the back. I went back to the door of the house to say goodbyes before getting onto the car and driving away. _Hiking time._

It took me just around five minutes to get to the drop off point. _That was fast, couldn've just walked here._ I got out of the car and went to the back to retrieve the equipment and my bag. I then opened the bag and double checked to see if everything I needed as in there. _Ok, MREs check, bandages check, water check..._ It was another ten minutes before I finish strapping the tripod onto the bag and make sure that the car is locked and the keys are safely with me.

* * *

 _I've been walking for over an hour, where the fuck is that cave?_ I put the boxes down and got my GPS out. _It says it just ten meters to my right, I don't see a fucking cave ten... oh, there is a cave there._ The entrance to the cave was covered with vines draping down from the top, it is so dense that I wasn't even able to see it twenty meters away. _Ugh, so much cutting to be done._ The ground immediately outside the gave was also covered in grass so creating a fire for the night won't be as easy. I looked around the area to see if there are any kind of nests and was relieved to not find any. _Right first thing to do - cut the fucking vines._ I set the boxes, my bag, and the tripod down beside the entrance close enough to me that I could see clearly if anything tried to take it and took out my bayonet. _If the general just told me there were vines I could've brough a bolo._

It took over an hour and a half before the vines were finally cut away, the entrance needs to be open for the scanners to pick it up and not register it as a wall of some sort. _Right, time to take the measurements of the cave itself._ I opened both boxes and got the manual for the scanner which had a formula about how far each scan region needs to be for an x, y, z amount of height, width and length. _Right, time to do old fashioned surveying._ I took the tape out and began measurements on the cave and after getting the optimal distance between the scan regions I ran the tape on the ground towards the inside of the cave, putting pins on each of the regions. As I went deeper into the cave a I started having strange feelings. _So was this the one they felt?_

I remembered stories of what people find in the dark told by my parents as 'scary stories' when I was young and immediately went back out to get flashlights and my gun. _Better safe than sorry._ I strapped the flashlight to my helmet using duct tape and continued marking the ground where the scanners were to be positioned and after around half an hour finally made it to the end. _Hmm, two hundred meters deep. Quite deep for such a shallow cave, it doesn't even go down, its just level... like someone mined this._

I went back out, put the tape back, got the scanner and started placing it in the points which I've marked. _So around three to four hours every point, gah it'll take all night long._ I was a little disheartened by the though, thinking it'll all be over in just a few hours time and I would be able to go back to base the same day. But maybe there was a reason why he gave me one week, is the scanner unreliable? Or did he though I might get lost in the forest? I gave it as little thought as possible as after I placed it, I still need to start it up and program it to scan. I got the laptop out of the same box and connected it to the scanner, I started to fiddle around with the setting while reading the manual to know more about what setting are the optimal. _Hmph, they never lets us play with cool shit like this in university._

It took me ages to get it right as I had never used one of them and by the time the scanner started working it was already nighttime. _Damn seven pm already, fuck need to get some wood quick._ I scambled out of the cave with the flashlight still on my helmet and ravaged through the twigs and fallen logs that littered the forest floor and took as much as I could back to my 'campsite'. I arranged them in a neat circular form and using a piece of paper as a starter, lighted my very own campfire. I sat down beside it, got a pack of MRE from my bag, and started chowing down while the low humming noise of the scanner continue uninterrupted.

The forest was a very peaceful place at night, no cars or other people, no light pollution so I could see the stars clearly, yet was scary as hell since you have no idea what lies beyond the light of the campfire. After eating I went on to play some games on my phone to pass the time until I need to shift the scanner. _Thank god I charged my phone before coming._ Another two hours and the scanner beeped, signaling that it was done and was time to shift it.

It went uneventfully and it started scanning away immediately after I clicked the start button on the laptop. _Another three hours, fuck it I'll just sleep and continue in the morning._ I got my light sleeping bag out from my pack and placed it just beside the entrance so to not obstruct the scanner, I've also got my pistol in my holster, my rifle right beside me, and I took the flashlight off the helmet and attached it to the rifle as it would be a pain in the neck if I slept with the helmet on. _But wait I could take a look at those symbols now... nah too late, just see it tomorrow. Goodnight Geraldt._

* * *

It was the middle of the night when I heard noises, some kind of low rumbling, and was awoken by something. _Its definitely not the scanner since its too deep inside the cave... bears, it had to be fucking bears._ I quickly got out of the sleeping bag and readied my rifle, set to full auto in case something charged at me.

It was still growling.

The fire that I made was still going albeit a lot weaker. _Nothing, still not charging... is it stalking me?_ I went to put my helmet on to give me some kind of head protection from a charge and readied my rifle again. I could see its eyes reflecting the light of the campfire and its silhouette definitely looked like that of a bear. It watched me as I watched it arch around the camp keeping its distance from the light. _This one's clever huh, we'll see about that._

I opened the flashlight on my rifle hoping to scare it away. _Oh shit what the fuck... what the fuck is that?!_ This bear... I don't even think that this was a bear, its snout was flat and elongated like that of a duck but it had sharp teeth all around its inside, it does have a body of a bear but the tail... the tail which looked like that of a platypus. _What the fuck is this shit supposed to be?_ It had a black snout and tail yet the rest of the body was brown with a v shaped white streak of fur around its neck.

As soon as the light hit it it started growling even louder and in no time started roaring. _What the hell that doesn't sound like a fucking bear? Should I shoot it now? No no you dumb fuck you'll just anger it more... what was that survival technique they taught? Shout... yes, shout and make yourself look bigger to scare it away._ I stood up and made my body as big as possible, started waving my rifle around and shouting curses at it but it didn't seemed to get scared, only agitated.

 _Uh oh, fix bayonet maybe? Do something Geraldt!_ By then I was already panicking, all those time with drill sergeants and even Afghanistan didn't prepare me for shit like this. _Fix the bayonet you dumb ass! Its almost gonna charge!_ Alright, fix bayonet. I got it from the scabbard strapped to my right leg and tried attaching it to the rifle and it was only then that I realize how much I was shaking out of fear. _Get yourself together!_

It then stood up on its hind legs.

 _Oh my fucking god its fucking gigantic!_ It looked as if it could dwarf the tallest NBA players and its muscles are just so jacked. It roared one more time while standing and afterwards dropped down and then it charged.

My whole body was frozen, I wasn't able to move. _So this is how it feels to be petrified huh?_ It came closer and closer, its figure getting larger and larger. I was already in a position to shoot, I was aiming at it, I had the right stance, everything... the only thing missing is me pulling the trigger but my finger just wouldn't move. _C'mon press it! You've survived IEDs and you arn't going to get killed by this thing now! Press it, press it!_

I pressed the trigger down and shouted as loud as I could, the bullets hitting the creature but it kept charging. Alas the magazine ran out of ammo and yet its still alive. _Why the fuck didn't it die? I hit it in the head!_ It was just a few feet away from me when I extended my arms hoping that it will impale itself on the bayonet and closed my eyes hoping for the best.

My arms buckled under the force of the creature but it wasn't enough to have broken bones, the gun suddenly felt extremely heavy in which the tip just dropped down. I opened my eyes to see the bayonet impaling the creature's neck with it bleeding profusely and gasting for air. I pulled the bayonet out and started stabbing it in the head as hard as I could.

After feeling satisfied that the creature was dead and my arms exhausted, I stopped and took a seat in front of it trying to figure out what the hell the bear thing exactly was and it was at that time I realized I had been crying the whole time. My hands were shaking and I was breathing heavily at the same time trying to suppress the tears. _What the hell dude, its just a bear... thing. You've gotten through worst._ Indeed I had been shot at and had been almost blown up, but facing a creature of unknown species that was this close to killing me is far more terrifying than the former. _I should take a picture of this with my phone... no no no, they'll think its photoshopped... fuck I'll take a video then._

With my still shaky hands I took out the phone from my pocket and noticed blood on the screen and on my gloves. _What the hell, was I bitten?_ I checked my body but found no evidence of injuries before realizing that the blood actually came from the beast. Most of my whole uniform was soaked in blood and after wiping my face with a white handkerchief, the handkerchief became red from the blood. Opening the front camera of my phone I saw my face fairly unscratched save for the blood, some mud, and my eyes red from crying, and afterwards switched to the rear cam and started recording away on the creature.

"So I found this... thing, it tried to attack me." I stood up and panned the camera around. "It came from that place and charged at me, the roar sounded like a bear but not really... I don't know." I panned back to the creature. "It looks like a bear but... I think it fucked a... platypus? I don't fucking know what's happening but this is definitely real." I went to its mouth and opened it showing its tooth, tongue, and the like. "See, this isn't come costume shit like those bigfoots in America, this thing's the real deal." I opened my flashlight and held it with my mouth with one of my hand holding the creature's mouth open while the other putting my phone as deep as I can into it. "You see, its real and not costume."

I took the phone out and closed the flashlight. "I would happily drag this back to the car but I've got to hike for over an hour on rought terrain and..." I pointed the camera towards the cave. "I still need to carry all those equipment back with me so... yeah." I looked back at the creature and continued. "If there are more of these in the forest and they came for me, well..." _Wait did its eyes just blinked._ I stood there a few inches right in front of it trying to figure out if it did or am I going crazy.

And out of nowhere it attacked by lunging forward with an open mouth, much like how crocodiles attacked their prey. "What the..." I was immediately thrown down on the ground with my phone being knocked off my hand and the creature right above me trying to bite my head off. I tried as best as I could to push it away but it was just too heavy, its mouth made contact with my helmet and I heard cracking sounds but the helmet didn't collapse. _Maybe its lost enough blood no not have as much power as it could have._ I then tried to grab my pistol from the holster with my right hand while trying to prevent it from squishing me with my left. The pistol was difficult to draw out as there wasn't a lot of room between me, the creature, and the ground but when I finally got it out I immediately started shooting it but there was no sound. _Its in safe? Fucking fuck!_ I unlocked the safety, tried again and finally heard a shot ripping through its abdomen. _Shooting nine milimeter rounds to the body isn't going to cut it._ I then tried my best to aim for the neck and chin before giving it all.

The hot casings ejected from the pistol constantly hit me in the face as I emptied the magazine on this creature in which it finally gave up and its body just collapsing onto me. _God its heavy, ohhhhh._ Panting, I tried with all my strength to push it aside. _So instead of being eaten by a bear thing I'm going to be squished by it, that's not the way I want to die._ With adrenaline pumping throughout my body I was able to push it aside but not before pulling some muscles on my left arm. _What was that word again? Double - tapping? Right, that's the one._ I got up and reloaded my pistol before emptying another magazine into the creature's head.

"And stay down!" I shouted , reloaded the pistol, and then put it back to my holster. _Right the phone, I almost forgot._ I quickly looked around the ground and found nothing. _Goddamned it shouldn't have brought a black one._ It took another minute before I found it still recording. _That's enough for today._ I stopped the video and went back to the campfire to see what I recorded.

"So I found this... thing, it tried to attack me." _Yeah yeah fucking hell._

"If there are more of these in the forest and they came for me, well..." _So here's where it start._

The camera started shaking before the creature got up and I heard myself scream. _Fuck is that how I really sounded like?_ The phone dropped to the ground with the camera facing upward and I could see some shadow moving around all the while I was screaming and the creature gnawing on my helmet. It took several seconds more before the gunshots were heard and everything went silent. My heavy panting was heard and after several more seconds the shadow of the bear tipped over and I saw myself standing looking very scared.

"And stay down!" _God that sounded so dumb._ And with that the video ended.

I turned my phone off and put it into my pocket before taking my helmet off and inspected the damage. _Holy shit its teeth actually almost went through!_ There were several depressions on the helmet put none was deep enough to pierce it. _Damn these helmets are not that tough huh._ I then put it back on and went to retrieve my rifle, change the magazine, took the bayonet out, and placed it back into the scabbard. _I might as well try to take its head off to be extra sure._ I knelt down beside the creature's head and was halfway into cutting through its fur when the strange feeling that I felt when I was in the cave overcame me. _What the fucking fuck._

I looked towards the cave but there was nothing there, but this feeling, this urge for me to investigate was far too much to continue decapitating the creature. _I'll just finish it later._ I got my rifle and reattached the flashlight onto it as I went into the cave.

It was far, far darker at night that it was at day for obvious reasons and that I needed to be careful not to trip over the laptop and the scanner. Moving cautiously deeper for several minutes I then stumbles across the paintings near the end of the cave.

'He who enters the void shall face the power of the avatar' _Avatar, what like those blue things James Cameron did? Or like that of the Hindus?_ There were already tons of pictures of the writing and the symbols but I decided to take one for myself because why not?

After taking the picture I scanned the wall that cut the cave off. _Hmm weird seeing this in person, looks a lot... stranger than that of the pictures._ I tried looking for gaps or something that would say that there's something behind it but failed to spot any. I knocked on it and the sound it makes tells me that its solid and not hollow. _What the hell are you even doing? You should get back to the scanner and reposition it already._ I sighed before turning back towards the scanner but then I heard something. _Oh god is it another one of those things?_ I frantically looked around but found nothing, dismissing it as something my mind would make up. I continued walking towards the scanner but heard it again this time audible and it was the voice of a young woman. 'Raava'.

 _Rava? What the hell is that supposed to mean?_ I turned around to see something small, glowing white in the end of the cave as if the rocks had suddenly become transparent. _What the fuck is happening, am I tripping balls?_ I pointed my gun at it afraid that whatever it is and slowly made my way towards it. As I approach it I heard the voice again and this time even louder. 'Raava, help me' _What the fuck is happening?_

I continued walking closer to the wall and it became clear that the wall was still there yet the light was shining right through it. _I don't think the wall remembers how to physics._ With my heart pumping and my body still shaken from the attack I placed my left hand on the wall trying to get a feel for it while my right was still holding the rifle.

The wall felt cold, far colder than the other parts of the cave as if there was ice on the other side. I then moved my hand around the wall not really knowing what to expect, find a hole maybe? It went on for several minutes with me failing to locate any such holes. Then I heard the voice again as loud as the last time. 'Raava, help me find answers'. _Answers? Answers to what?_

Instantly a large blast of air and extremely bright light from the wall blew me several meters away with the impact of the landing knocking my rifle out of my hand. _What the hell was that?_ I immediately stood up and got my rifle before pointing my gun towards the wall... _Wait what? Where the fuck is the wall?_ In front of me lies an endlessly deep cave that even the light from my flashlight wasn't able to reach very far. _No, no, no this isn't happening. I'm going crazy, yes that's it, this is impossible. Or is this a dream? All of it? But the pain is too much for me to not wake up._ I looked towards the entrance of the cave and saw the dim light of the campfire. _Its still there so yeah... I should reposition the scanner first, no I should investigate this one first. But I've told myself that I'll continue scanning in the morning... no, the mission... but this feeling, this urge had never been greater._

I continued arguing with myself in silence for several more minutes before curiosity and the urge overcame sensibility and logic. _Fuck it then, lets go but first be prepared for anything._ I quickly ran out of the cave, rolled my sleeping bag and put it back into the pack, got my pack and the boxes and then placed the boxes inside the cave beside the scanner. I walked into the darkness not knowing how deep it might be. _'He who enters the void shall face the power of the avatar', so is this the void?_

* * *

Ten minutes into the other side I noticed the walls of the cave started to change. _Strange, it looks... cleaner. Wait are those torches?_ Indeed they are, rows of unlit torches on both side of the wall starting from where I was standing all the way in. _Hmm, then that means someone had been here before._

I continued trudgging along and before long I saw a faint yellowish light in the distance. _Yellow lights? Could they be incandescent light bulbs?_ As I got closer it became clearer that it wasn't a light bulb but was actually the exit. _Finally!_ I sprinted through the remaining dozen meters or so before finally getting out of the cave. _Damn that was long, now lets see where I am, maybe I've ended up in France or Luxe... What the hell?_

In front of me was a massive city that could rival the size of New York City, in fact it looked almost exactly like New York City with skyline filled with skyscrapers of varying heights. New York City had Manhattan which is a small island but the one in front of me was a thin peninsula with the shape similar to that to Manhattan, several bridges connect its both sides to the mainland, in front of it was a bay with two islands, one with a statue and one with a pagoda like structure and its land connection was to the back. _Where the fuck am I?_ There were mountain ranges in front of me on the other side of the city, to my right and from what I could see where I am standing and they're all broken up by valleys at least several kilometers wide. The mountain that I was standing on had a path to my right leading down and right below me was a small forest area just about an acre or so.

I was amazed, it was breathtaking to see such a city but at closer inspection the city itself seemed heavily damaged. A lot of buildings were destroyed or under repairs and there was a strip of land from the middle of the city towards the bay that was totally destroyed, like how in sci-fi movies where a space laser fires onto the earth and just makes a path of destruction. And then there's the bright beam of yellowish light shooting upwards from the city. _Jesus christ how much electricity does that eat up?_ I took my phone out and recorded a small video before getting a panoramic shot. _They've got to believe me, there's no way I could make this up with CGI._

"Hey mister, are you alright?"

"Yeah I'm fine..." _Wait did someone just talked to me in Mandarin?_ I looked to my right and saw a girl carrying a lantern and a staff, around fourteen or fifteen in age, and was wearing a yellow and red robes just like that of the Dalai Lama. _A monk?_ She had short hair and also a blue arrow pointing downwards tattooed on her forehead.

"Are you sure? You have blood all over your clothes." She said looking concerned.

"I was attacked by a bear... platypus thing but I've killed it already."

She looked curious. "You mean a platypus bear?"

I frowned. "What do you mean 'platypus bear'?"

"Its a subspecies of the bear, like the lion bear or the crocodile bear." _What the actual fuck is she talking about?_

I just nodded in response. "Okay, so where am I exactly."

"Oh so you're lost? Well this is the Nan Fang mountains and that's Republic City if you haven't guessed. Where are you from anyway? And how did you managed to get all the way up here?"

"I, umm..." _Republic City? What?_ "I came from... umm, that cave?" I pointed at the cave. _God she'll think I'm crazy._

She looked at me confused. "What do you mean that cave..." Her eyes suddenly widened. "Spirits, you're them arn't you!"

"I'm... who?"

"Avatar Aang, he... spirits! I need to get dad!" She got her staff and pressed a button in which wings popped out. _Damn that's a cool glider._ "Wait here for just about an hour, I'll be back!" and just like that she flew away.

"Wait! What do you mean an hour! Hey come back!" She had already flew away quite far. _Damn how did she do that? There isnt a powerful updraft here that could've lifted her glider up so easily. Well looks like time to go back before anything crazier happens._

I took one last selfie with the city in the background and then put the phone back into my pocket, I then proceeded to go back into the cave and stuck a bullet into the ground to have some kind of mark for if I get back. _The general is definitely going to go crazy with this discovery._

I hurried back to the other side of the cave and once I got there I let out a sigh of relief. _Damn is it good to be back in this creepy forest!_ _Hmm, now's the time to call the general._ I got the envelope out of my pack and looked for his number.

' _For emergencies' hmm, this should count as an emergency._ I got my phone out and typed in the number and waited for several beeps before someone answered.

"Hello?"

"Is this General Braun?" I asked

"Who the fuck is this?"

"Its Corporal Tchaikovsky sir."

"Ah, corporal. So what made you call me three in the fucking morning?"

"Sir remember the theories that Dr. Eckhart had for the cave?"

"The portal one?"

"Yes sir."

"What about it corporal?"

"Well..."


	3. 102: Welcome to Republic City

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Welcome to Republic City**

"Corporal are you sure you didn't eat any kind of mushrooms?"

"I assure you sir, I even have video and pictures to back me up."

The general went silent for several moments. "Fine get back to base now and that platypus bear thing that you killed, try putting it somewhere hunters or other animals won't eat up so when we return it'll still be there."

"Yes sir. What about the equipments? Should I return them first?"

"No no, just bring it back to base and I'll get someone else to return it."

"Yes sir."

"Good, I'll be waiting for you in my office."

He hung up and I sighed. _Inside the cave would be a great place to hide the bear._ I then proceeded to pack up all the equipment, slowly drag the bear into the cave, and then place several sticks and leaves on it to look less suspicious to someone looking from the outside. _Time to go back then._

When I arrived it took me just over an hour to get to the cave on foot but since its in the middle of the night it took me over two hours to get back to the car. I was constantly tripping over vines on the forest floor and adding to the difficulty was the flashlight which I duct taped once more to my helmet getting low on battery.

Upon arriving on the parked car I immediately placed the equipments and my pack to the back of the car, got on it and drove off. It was deathly quiet and I only saw a couple of dozen cars on the autobahn on the way back to base.

It was already five in the morning when I finally arrived on the gate of the base, the MPs on the gate was different from when I exited which means that they've changed shifts already. I drove up towards the small guard house and waved at them.

"Hey sarge! How's it going?"

"Corporal what the hell happened to you?" He looked at me suspiciously

"I got attacked by a bear, anyways had General Braun told you that I'm coming?"

"Name?"

"Corporal Geraldt Tchaikovsky."

He looked at his clipboard before signaling to the guy in the guard house to phone the general. There was a short conversation on the phone before he hung up and made a thumbs up to the sergeant.

"Okay corporal you're good to go." The sergeant said

"Alright, thank you sir."

The barrier was raised and I drove in towards the HQ building. I parked the car at the small parking spot to the side, got out of the car and immediately proceeded towards the front door not even bothered to try and change my blood soaked fatigues. Entering the building the receptionist looked shook too see me in the state I was in.

"Corporal, are you alright?" He looked worried.

"Me? Oh the blood, nah I'm cool just a bear's blood that's all. Anyways is the general here yet?"

"Umm yeah he is, he had been waiting for you for around half an hour now."

"Oh wow, ok then thanks."

I saluted him before proceeding to the general's office. I knocked on the door entered and saluted him. "Corporal Tchaikovsky reporting sir."

"Ah corporal... Damn that's a lot of blood for a bear huh. At ease boy."

I loosened my stance. "Well sir it did charge at me and I stabbed it..."

He nodded. "Anyways take a seat corporal and yeah, show me your videos."

I took a seat in front of his desk, took out my phone and loaded the video before showing it to him.

'So I found this... thing, it tried to attack me.' _Ah here we go._ The general's eyebrows creased as soon as he saw the creature. 'It came from that place and charged at me, the roar sounded like a bear but not really... I don't know.' A minute later I heard my scream. 'What the?! Ahhhhhhh! You fucking...' I still cringe upon hearing my screams yet he looked a bit amused.

"That scream though." He let out a small laugh. _Sigh*_

After finishing the first video I showed him the second one, about the city. He genuinely looked impressed at what I've captured.

"So you said that you've encountered a 'monk' after taking the video?"

"Yes sir."

"What does she look like?"

"Well she's a girl, definitely about fourteen or fifteen years old and have short hair. Got a blue arrow tattooed on her forehead and her clothes look just like that of the Dalai Lama. She also got a staff that have wings that pop out when she pressed a button turning it into a glider."

"Are you really sure you didn't eat any wild mushrooms in the forest?"

"Absolutely sir."

"Hmm alright." He gave me my phone back. "Go clean yourself up, I'll think about this... about how we'll tackle this 'portal'."

"Yes sir, thank you sir."

"Take the equipment out of the car and give it to the receptionist for now and then return the car to the depot."

"Yes sir."

"Fine, go on, you're dismissed corporal. I'll just call for you if I need anything else."

I stood up and saluted him before getting out of the building, gave the equipment to the receptionist, and drove the car back to the depot. Upon arriving at the depot I was greeted by the same technician.

"Damn Geraldt, what the hell happened to you?"

"Bah its nothing dude, just went into a fight with a... bear." I got out of the car and handed him the keys.

"Getting into a fight with a bear is nothing to you?! Damn you the man dude!" He playfully punched me in the arms. "Come on and sign the paper and then you should go take a bath or something."

"Fine." I signed the paper. "Thanks."

"Don't sweat it."

I waved a goodbye before walking to my barrack with the guys I meet on the way staring at me possibly thinking who I've murdered.

 _Finally I'm back in the barrack!_ First thing I did was to get to get back to my room and carefully take new clothes to not disturb my 'roommate' then proceed to the shower while everyone's still sleeping in. I took a quick shower then went to the laundry to scrub my fatigue clean. Afterwards I returned to my room and checked the time. _Oh wow six already, thankfully today's a sunday so no training today!_ I could already see the light of the sun over the horizon but the sun itself remains hidden. With that I decided to reward myself with sleeping after all that I've gone through in the last twelve hours or so.

* * *

March 15 (D+2)

It had been two days since I discovered this 'portal'. The general had yet to say anything to the press and life was normal in the base. I got called to the general's office around noon and when I got to the office there were about five more guys inside.

"Ah corporal I see you've joined us. I'm going to mount a small 'expedition' to the other side of the portal and these men will be under your command."

"Sir? Wouldn't it be better to have a sergeant take charge?" I replied.

"No, because you're the only one who had got over there and since you're the only Chinese speaker in this unit I want to place you in charge. I've read through your records and it looked like you did well in Afghanistan and it seemed like you actually took over command during the ambush." He sighed. "Not sure why Gottlieb was the one promoted and not you... anyways the guys had already been briefed so I'll be doing this quickly for you. You objective is to obviously discover more about the other side and maybe establish some sort of contact there, you did say they were speaking Mandarin and the girl looked Chinese yes?"

"Yes sir."

"So if they all looked Chinese then there won't be a problem with you blending in, the problem would be with your men since... well they're white. There's nothing really more to it, I'll give you one week again and afterwards try to come back in one piece, I don't like guys getting killed in peacetime... needs a shit ton of paperworks. Understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Very good then, I'll be providing transportation to get you guys to the forest and its up to you afterwards, you'll be deploying around twenty one hundred hours later. Oh and by the way I'll be allowing your squad to take your phones with you to take pictures and videos of anything that you find there but they are to be classified and as such cannot be posted to the internet. Any questions?"

"Sir does the media knows about this yet?" One of the men asked.

The general shook his head. "Not yet, but I've informed the Minister of Defence about it and she said not to in order to prevent the bloodthirsty media on swarming the bloody place. Anything else?"

"No sir."

"Good, you're all dismissed. You still got half a day to get used to each other so try to be nice."

"Yes sir" We all replied and saluted before getting out of the office.

When we got out of the building one of the guys quipped. "Hey wanna get a drink in the cafeteria and get to know each other?"

We nodded in agreement and before long we were in the base's canteen having a hot meal.

"I'll start off then. I'm Private Herman Steinmeier, designated marksman. Good to see you all!" He looked very optimistic of everything. _Hmm, maybe that's what I need in my life._

"Private Hans Hohenzollern, rifleman."

"Private Karl Eckstein, I'm a MG3 gunner."

"Mg3? Isn't that platoon level support?" Herman said

"Yeah, I'm puzzled too why I was assigned."

"Ah okay then, how about you?"

"Private Jonathan Wagner, rifleman."

"Jonathan? Isn't that a bit American huh?" Herman asked

"Well my parents were a bit... lets say 'Americanized' during the cold war."

"Ah the cold war I remember that, not so good times though. How about you, what your name bro?"

"I umm, well I'm Walter Ruderford, medic."

"Medic? Nice! So did you go to medical school?"

"I actually am a doctor in cardiology."

"Really?! Well why the hell are you in the army then?"

"I have my own clinic back in Berlin but business was very very slow, so yeah because of that I just decided to join the army, more fun than sitting on the ER everyday."

"So that means your like.. thirty five-ish now?"

"Yeah."

"Holy shit then we should be calling you dad now! I mean, hey corporal how old are you?"

"Twenty five?" I replied.

"See, even the corporal is younger than you Walter!"

"Heh, then I should get used to it."

"Yeah 'dad'" Steinmeier laughed. "Anyways, how about you corporal?"

"Huh?" I replied. "Ah well I'm Corporal Geraldt Tchaikovsky, rifleman too"

"Tchaikovsky, isn't that a bit... Russian?"

"My grand parents left China after the communists won and for some reason came to Germany and was taken in by a Russian family in the West in which they adopted their surnames... Tchaikovsky."

"Huh, Russian family in the west, that's weird isn't it?"

"Yeah... weird."

"Anyways, come on boys look lively! Hey how about we change the subject to, I don't know maybe your love life?" _Oh god._

* * *

2030H

"Alright listen up!" The general was going to give us our final briefing while we were gearing up in the vehicle depot. "I'm also going to send another platoon to secure the cave on our side in order to prevent people from our side from going in there and also people from their side from coming here. I've received reports that yesterday some residents of Hürtgenwald spotted two people, an old bald man with a pointy goatee and a teen girl with short hair both of which had blue arrows tattooed on their heads, just like the one Geraldt mentioned." He paused. "These two were wearing some kind of red wingsuits, had East Asian looks, and were walking around the area before disappearing back into the forest, luckily none of the residents tried to investigate or the bloody press would've been upon us a long time ago." He signaled for something before continuing. "The officer in charge of guarding the cave would be Lieutenant Johann Gottlieb of Kandahar fame." _What, that guy's here?_

The lieutenant raised his hands above our heads before continuing to gear up.

"The action plan now is for Corporal Tchaikovsky's squad to move into the other side and find out more about it and if possible establish contacts with the locals. Lieutenant Gottlieb's platoon will have two men on the other side waiting and they would have laid down some telephone wires if radio communication back to our side is impossible. In case there is anything to report, Tchaikovsky's squad will report to the two men then in turn they'll report to Gottlieb. Any more questions?"

"None sir." Herman replied.

"Okay, you still have half an hour to gear up. Check and double check if all your stuffs are in place, night vision goggles, rations, ammo, two way radios, etc. I'll be back at my office if any of you need me, carry on."

We went on getting ourselves ready, checking our ammos and other survival gears in case we got lost in the other side, Steinemier came up to me holding a small can of green paint.

"Sir what do you think? Should be apply face paint, get ski masks, or just go in bare?"

"Hmm." I wondered out loud. "Ski masks makes us look like terrorists, face paint... well for someone who had never seen such things would make us look like tough warriors?"

"Well sir, what do you think?"

"Meh lets go face paint then, looks badass... makes me feel like I'm in the special forces."

"Very well sir! I have three over there sir, green, dark green, and woodland brown. It a perfect match with our flecktarn fatigues."

"Okay go tell the other guys about it, I'll be there in just a second."

"Yes sir." He saluted me before informing the other men of our camouflage.

"Oi Geraldt, long time no see eh?"

I turned around to find Johann walking towards me with his stuff all packed and ready to go. "Oh hey lieutenant! How's an officer's life treating you?"

"Same just like old times, huh never thought being a lieutenant would mean a lot of paperwork. Anyway I came to ask you how long would you and your men be on the other side?"

"The general gave us a week so yeah I'll try stretching it, we'll be able to find out more that way."

"Ah, I get you. Always the bold one eh?"

"Bold as in disobeying direct orders?"

"Hah! Come on that was over a year ago, if it weren't for you we would have been in serious trouble in that ambush."

"True, true but then you got the awards though."

"Nah its just a medal and some crappy certificate, nothing worth noting."

"Yeah. Hey I'll talk to you later, gotta go and put on some face paint."

"Oh I see you wanna go all stealthy and stuff. We're the panzergrenadiers for fuck's sake! Stealth is the last thing we do!"

"Yeah yeah, I know I know, but wouldn't it look badass for them to see us for the first time with face paint on?"

"Bah, you got point. See you later then!"

"Yeah see you too lieutenant."

We parted ways and I went to find Steinmeier and saw him and the men putting on their face paints fairly quickly.

"Hey come on sir! It'll only take a few minutes." Steinmeier called out to me

"Okay private, make it look cool."

Nine in the evening. The air was filled with excitement as most of the men have never been deployed before, Johann stood up atop one of the tables that we had put our gears on and started barking orders. "Alright guys load up!" he ordered as soon as everyone was in line. Our gears included out battle rifles, fatigues gloves, elbow and knee pads, helmets, bulletproof vests with ceramic plates, and survival items like rations and sleeping bags in our flecktarn camoflauge patterned packs.

There were two general purpose trucks assigned to us with canvas coverings in the back to prevent the public from seeing us. My squad and half of Johann's platoon is in one while the rest is riding on the other, the drivers were provided by the general and were to return to base immediately after they've dropped us off.

The general was there to wave us goodbye... which was extremely odd. "So corporal, I see you and your men have face paints on, haha."

"Yes sir."

"Well, good luck then." He saluted us as we boarded the trucks in which I saluted back.

It took us just over five minutes before everyone was in and the rear flap of the canvas closed. The inside was extremely dark as there were no lights and it would help our eyes focus more at night. The truck stopped and I heard people talking outside which I assumed was the MPs on the guardhouse, the truck started moving again after several seconds and before we know it we were already on the autobahn.

"The trip will take about three hours, right sir?" One of the men from Johann's platoon asked me.

"Yeah, so if you want to sleep go on. Wake me up when we arrive okay Steinmeier?"

"Yes sir." He replied.

"Good, goodnight then."

* * *

"Sir wake up, sir we're here." Steinmeier was nudging me lightly on the shoulder

"Huh? Hmm, fine... how long did the trip took?"

"Four hours sir, there was an accident on the way so traffic was held up for a bit."

"Hmm." I replied nonchalantly. "Have the guys got out already?"

"Yes sir, your the last one." _Fuck, so much for leading by example_

"Okay okay, I'm up I'm up." I got up from the seat and scurried out of the back of the truck. The sergeant from Johann's platoon saw me got out and signaled the driver that we're all out in which the driver nodded and drove off.

"So Geraldt, I'm quite excited to see this 'platypus bear' of yours." Johann quipped as I stretched.

"Yeah yeah, come on. It'll take us around an hour to get there so lets go."

"Alright." Johann then faced the men. "Night visions out boys! We wouldn't want to wake the sleeping folks in the town!"

The men took out their NV goggles and attached them to the attachment points in front of the helmets and then flipped it downward to be used. The unit then formed a column of two lines with me and Johann up front, and started walking into the forest.

"The general showed us the video you shot with the 'platypus bear'." Johann said as we slowly marched towards the cave. "I've never seen you screamed that hard before." He laughed before playfully punching me in the arms.

"Ha.. Ha. If you were in that situation you would've wet yourself already lieutenant." I replied

"True true, but I wasn't and even if I was... nevermind."

I smirked "Oh come on lieutenant maybe someday you'll not only wet yourself, but also a girl!"

"That's quite bold coming from someone who haven't fucked anyone before."

"Hey I'm being fucked by life all the time."

He laughed "True, but hey come on you should be more active in your fuck life."

"Please, don't go there."

He was now the one smirking "What now? Does the little baby not want to talk about sex?" _Goddamned it_

"Lieutenant please just... stop."

He thought for a moment "Okay, sorry if I pulled some unwanted strings... but seriously you never know what's on the other side, maybe a hot chick would get mesmerized by your face paints."

"Yeah yeah whatever lieutenant." _Damn if that did happen_

The trek to the cave went on uneventful, there were constant chatter amongst the men albeit quite silently as we didn't want to alert anyone or anything of our presence in the forest.

We finally arrived at the cave after an hour and the first thing I did was to search for the body of the platypus bear inside. As I went in I saw the leaves and twigs that I used to cover the body but the carcass was nowhere to be found. _The fuck? I... I swear that it was here, how the hell did it disappear... those monks._

"Damn is this a big ass cave, two Leopard 2 MBTs could have easily fit through this side by side. So corporal, had the creature reanimated and became a zombie?" Johann said sarcastically

"No, that's impossible. I hid it here, the only possible answer was those two... those two with the arrow tattoo, maybe they carried the bear away." I knelt down beside the pile trying to see if there were any kinds of marks that would indicate the bear was moved or dragged.

"Oh come on an old guy and a teen? There's no way they could've move that big ass bear far, that is if they even moved it at all." He looked towards his men. "How's the set up going?"

"Fine sir, all that's left is to drag the wire across the cave." One replied

"Good." He then looked back at me who was still trying to solve the mystery. "Suck it up Geraldt, what's done is done. If they were the one who did it then you should try finding them when you get to the other side and if not... well we have a zombie out here to deal with."

"God... Fuck! Fine, I'll call my men and we'll start moving out then." I stood up and head out of the cave. "Hey Expedition squad, form up front and center!"

The guys formed up in front of me in one line. "Okay we'll be going to the other side now, if you have any prayers to say do it know because we'll be on the other side for around a week."

The guys nodded at me before they started saying their own prayers in silence, afterwards they stood at attention once more.

"Done?" I asked

"Yes sir" They replied.

"Okay, I'll be on point and Wagner will be on the rear. Any questions?"

"No sir"

"Move out!"

We started moving into the cave with the two guys from Johann's platoon following closely behind. Before we got out of hearing distance Johann shouted into the cave. "Oi remember, only use your weapons in self defence! You will not shoot first!"

"Yes sir!" I shouted back and before long we were too deep into the tunnel to hear anything.

The deeper we went the less light goes into the cave and after a few minutes we were forced to used our flashlight as there was total darkness and the night vision goggles were not able to work in that kind of condition.

"Hey sir, do you think our compasses will work in the other side?" Wagner asked

"I... huh never thought about it." I got my compass out and shined my flashlight at it to see better. "It says we're going east but the needle is a bit wobbly."

"Ok sir, that was good to know."

The deeper we went the worse the needle's erratic movement and by the time we were where the wall used to be it was spinning around uncontollably, as if the magnetic field is all around us. _Okay... this is pretty creepy._

"Sir, you got any idea why the compass is acting like this?" Wagner said

"Nope. My guess is either its broken or we're getting closer to the bermuda triangle."

"Maybe its because of the paintings?" He lointed at the four symbols that we just passed a moment ago.

"Don't think so, the people who conducted research here before have never reported anything like this."

"Maybe the magnetic field on the other side is different?"

"Maybe."

We walked for another ten minutes we finally emerged on the other side with the city still in full view. _Wow, damn it looked majestic._ The farther we were from the 'great divide', which is where the wall used to be, and the closer we got to the exit the more stable the compass and when we got the cave the compass had stabilized and was pointing north towards the city.

"Holy shit sir, this is awesome!" Steinmeier quipped

"God, it really looked just like New York City except maybe that gigantic beam of light coming from the middle of the city." Ruderford added.

"So the compass, it says the city is north" I said as I was putting the compass back into my pocket.

"North? Weren't we going east?" Wagner was surprised

"I know but its what it says. You were right, this world has a different magnetic field than ours."

"Huh, never thought that could happen."

"Private we're literally on another world, anything is possible."

We stood then for a good five minutes taking in the night scenery before the two guys from Johann's platoon started setting their equipment up which consists of a two way radio and a telephone with the wire stretching back to our side. We stood around waiting for them to finish setting up before we tried calling it. I stood on the path leading down the mountain about ten meters away before starting the short test.

"This is Expedition, Outpost do you copy over?" I said through my radio

"Yep loud and clear Expedition." One of the guys replied with a thumbs up.

I got back up and said our goodbyes to both of the guys before me and my squad started descending the mountain with our night vision goggles on. The path was narrow, consisting of steps barely wide enough for a man to pass through carved into the mountain wall with no safety railings on the outside. It was quite scary as one wrong step and you could fall to your death. The path then started winding on the mountain face in which it became wide enough for two people to pass. We continued walking downwards and after several more minutes finally made it to the bottom. In front of us lay a dirt road that cut right through the small forest directly into the city and with a shallow ditch on the right around half a meter deep. Using hand signals I told the squad to observe total silence and only talk if it is of extreme importance.

We continued onwards on the trail in a single file with the brightness of the city in front of us being partially covered by the forest. As we moved cautiously we stumbled upon what seemed to be a small camp on the right side about twenty meters from the trail with about eight people around a campfire with several tents behind them. I signaled the men to take cover in the ditch, I took my pack off leaving it in the ditch and tried crawling closer towards a small bush between the ditch and the camp to eavesdrop on what they were saying.

As I got closer I took the NV goggles off as the campfire was too bright for me to see. I saw the men wearing red clothes similar to that of the traditional Chinese clothes we see in movies, they were chowing down on something and were talking to each other quite loudly.

"I told you already, no!" One of them shouted

"Oh come on boss! The triple treats are already weakened with their fights against the equalists, we could easily swoop in and take them out in one go"

"For fuck's sake Po, I will not cause the Agni Kai into war with the Triple Threats! The big boss had already talked about this."

"Fine boss but I'm telling you, this is a wasted opportunity to take them out."

"No its not. This is a foolish... wait is someone there?" The boss stood up and looked towards my direction pointing at the bush that I was in. _Shit._

"Doesn't seem so boss." Another replied

"No, I saw the reflection of someone's, or something's eyes. Hey you two, go check it out." He pointed at two of his men in which they stood up and started walking towards me with their hands on a defensive posture in front of them without weapons. _Hmm, martial arts masters?_

I turned around and quickly crawled back to the ditch and whispered to my men. "Two guys coming, stay down and don't panic."

"Yes sir, if they discover us and charged are we to open fire?" Hohenzollern asked

"Negative, they're unarmed so if they attack us we'll just have to go head to head in melee."

"Okay sir."

"He's getting closer, shhh."

We heard the steps getting closer with a twig getting snapped every now and then, and the sound of the leaves crunching under their feet. It stopped just a couple of meters from the ditch and the whole place fell silent. I heard murmurs but was too soft to understand. After several seconds the leaves began rustling again but this time going away from us. _Phew that was close._

I climbed back over the ditch and saw the two walking back to the camp shaking their heads.

"There's nothing there boss."

I was just able faintly hear their conversation so I signaled the squad to wait in the ditch again before deciding to get back to the bush to listen better.

"But I saw something... ugh forget it, come on we still need to deliver the package to Xi Hai, we should sleep now since we'll be moving on the first light of day. Zhao you're the sentry tonight." The boss said. _Package? Hmm._

The men went into their tents leaving 'Zhao' and another who went to a nearby bush to relieve himself. _Hmm, is it worth it to know more about them? Nah, they looked like thugs._ I was about to turn around and go back to the ditch before something stepped on me. _What the..._ Before I could react it fell down on my back with a shout.

"Oww, what the hell is this?"

"Hey Huang you alright?" I heard Zhao call out. _Shit was it the guy taking a piss?_

"I tripped on.. what the? Who the hell is this?" _fuck!_

I immediately got up knocked the man over, and grasped my rifle taking it off safety and pointed it at him, I looked at the man lying on the ground facing me with horror in his eyes.

"Hey Huang you alright?"

I looked to my left and saw Zhao was walking towards us with a ball of fire on his hands. _What? how the fuck is that possible?_ The moment he saw me he froze in place with the fame fear on his face as the man lying on the ground. _Hmm, so the facepaint was effective in scaring people._

We stood there for god knows how long just looking at each other while I was thinking how to ger out of this conundrum. _I can't just kill them, fuck I don't even know it they really are thugs or not._ As I was looking down onto the man he suddenly jabbed his right arm forward and flames came out from his fists. _What the fuck?!_ The speed of the flame was not very fast but he was very close to me and I wasn't fast enough to dodge it, all I was able to do was to turn my face away and shield it from the flame with my left arm and tried turning my whole body from it. It hit me on the left of my torso and it felt exactly like how a fireball would... painful and hot.

"Fuck fuck fuck! Ahhhhh!" I shouted out as I backed away from the men.

The Zhao ran towards Huang and helped the man stand up, they then got into a fighting stance ready to pounce. _Bloody hell... wait, I'm on fucking fire! What was it they teach back at school? Stop, drop, and roll._ That was exactly what I did, I stopped backing away, threw my rifle aside, dropped to the ground, and started panicky rolling around. I was several revolutions in when I heard some shouting coming from the ditches.

"Corporal... fire... go..."

And another coming from the other side. "Equalist... kill... shoot..."

 _This is bad, really really bad._ My sense of sight was gone for the moment as I was rolling around on the ground and closed my eyes to prevent debris and the heat from irritating it, all I could do to know what was happening around me was to listen.

I heard several sounds, the same ones when the man threw the fire ball at me. I could hear it go over me and presumably was thrown into the ditch where my squad was. _Jesus, fuck!_ It continued with several more fireballs streaking over me before I heard the undeniable sound of an MG3 ripping through the air, accompanied by rapid single-shot fire coming from the rifles.

The shooting lasted under a minute before it went quiet, I was still on fire, though the flame had started to somewhat die down.

"Corporal! Corporal! Goddamned it Herman give your fucking canteen already!"

I was still in a panicked state so I wasn't able to identify whose voice that was.

"Corporal stay put and face the ground! We'll be pouring water on you!"

Immediately after the command water started pouring down onto me. It was such a feeling of relief with the heat dissipating. A few moments later someone held me down to prevent me from rolling around and poured more water onto my torso.

"Sir, sir! Are you alright?"

I opened my eyes and sat up to see Walter and Steinmeier holding empty canteens. I then looked around to see four more empty canteens lying on the ground, and the medkit Walter carries with him. "I'm okay, I'm okay, just a little... fired up."

"Sir take your upper fatigue off, I need to check for burns." Walter commanded me and I did not protest as he was our medic.

I took the fatigue off and inspected the damage done. _Hmm small holes here and here but nothing major._ I placed it aside and removed my helmet before taking my gray t-shirt off. _Well there are black spots but it hasn't burnt thoroughly._

"Turn around sir and let me check your left torso."

I did as was asked and turned around.

"Wow holy shit how the hell did the fire not burn you?"

"Hmm?" I grumbled

"Your skin, there are no signs of any kind of burns... well its a bit red but other than that nothing, and you were burning for quite sometime."

"Huh, maybe their fire isn't intense enough?"

"Sir, we got a live one here!" Jonathan was on top of one of the 'Agni Kai' and was checking his pulse. "He's murmuring something, I don't understand sir."

"Alright I'll be there." I got up, took the t-shirt with me and put it back on while walking towards Wagner with the rest of the squad crowding around him. "Hey hey, do you understand me?" I knelt down beside the man from the 'Agni Kai'.

He was panting heavily with blood coming out of his mouth and several him in his torso "You... fucking... equalist... shits..." _Equalist? The hell is that?_

I sat down beside him in deep thought when he suddenly jabbed his left arm towards Jonathan creating a small stream of fire. Everyone jumped out of the way and in return a hail of bullets got fired into the man.

"Cease fire! Cease fire! Stop firing for fuck's sake!" I got up from where I was seated and ran towards Jonathan. He was pouring lead into the body which was by then disfigured by the volume of bullets hitting him. "Fucking hell cease fire!" No reply.

I grabbed the barrel of his gun and forcefully pointed it towards the ground and removed the magazine.

"What the fuck are tou doing?!" Jonathan shouted.

"I said cease fire you dumb ass!"

"Didn't you see sir? He's a fucking monster, they're all fucking monsters. How can we be sure they're actually dead?"

"He' fucking dead already, the corpse doesn't even look like a human anymore."

The shooting stopped with everyone looking at each other having the same expressions in their green painted faces... fear.

"Sir, they can throw fireballs, fireballs! They don't even have some fancy flamethowing arms, all they do was punch the air and boom! Out comes fire."

"Jonathan you need to calm down." I looked at the men. "Everyone needs to calm down, remember that we're on another world, who knows if their physics is the same as ours."

Silence.

"Anyways don't eat through your ammo like a fucking hippo, there's no way we can resupply here and those ten magazines you have are all there is... of course except of our beloved mg gunner Karl in which each of us carry an extra ammo box for him... fuck, the point is conserve you bloody ammo okay?"

"Yes sir." They muttered in reply.

"Good, now we should scavenge around the camp a little and see if they got anything useful like their money and shit. Oh and try to find a package of some sort, they were going to deliver it somewhere."

"Sir should we bury the bodies?" Walter asked.

"Hmm, no. It would take too much time, just... just drag them back into the tents after you've finished looking around."

"Yes sir."

"Well go on then."

The squad dispersed throughout the camp and started looking around and taking important and wierd items. I went back to retrieve my fatigue and helmet, got my rifle, went to the ditch to get my pack, and went back to get the empty canteens and give it back to the men.

I then went to sit on a small wooden stool beside a tent to try to calm myself down from what just happened. I then got my radio to report back to outpost on our findings.

"Outpost this is Expedition, do you copy, over"

The radio crackled to life. "Expedition this is outpost, we hear you loud and clear, over"

"Outpost I'm reporting that we have engaged hostiles who appeared to be able to launch fireballs at us without any equipment at will, no casualties on our side though we killed all eight of them, over."

There was a pause "Expedition say again, over"

"We've engaged hostiles who appeared to be able to launch fireballs at us without any equipment at will, we didn't have casualties but all eight of them are dead, over."

Another pause "Expedition are you sure, over."

"Of course I'm fucking sure, I got fucking hit goddamned it."

"Alright Expedition we'll report it to the lieutenant, anything else? Over."

"That's all, Expedition out." I put the radio down and sighed.

"Sir, their money." Steinmeier walked towards me and handed me several pieces of red paper.

I took the money and inspected it more closely. They have Chinese numbers on the corners and a picture of an old man in the middle and several words above it reads 'National Bank of the United Republic of Nations.' _That's pretty damn long._ I flipped it around to see some having the picture a palace and the others having the picture of a man with blue tattoos on his head holding a wooden staff and clothes similar to that of the Dalai Lama. _Wait, was this the guy those residents saw? The one here looks young, could it be the same guy?_ The numbers on the corners were one, five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, and five hundred.

"So sir, what do you think?"

"Hmm? Ah, right. It looked almost like the yuan... you know the Chinese currency, the only thing missing is Mao Zhe Dong's picture."

"Hmm, yeah it does sir."

"Anything more Steinmeier?"

"We found several leather canteens in the tent, a package wrapped in paper, and a few sets if clothes and shoes."

"Don't drink the water, we don't know if they have AIDs or something. As for the package can you show me where it is?"

"Yes sir, but about the water, we're out."

"We'll just buy some in the city when we get there."

"Okay sir, follow me."

I got up from the stool and followed Steinmeier to one of the tents all the while he was shouting at the rest if the squad to refrain drinking their water. We got into the tent and saw Jonathan still looking through the stuff.

"Hey Jonathan, where's the package?" Steinmeier asked.

"Here." Jonathan got up and went to one of the sacks and got a small box about six inches across wrapped in brown paper out and handed it to me. He then went back shuffling through their stuff.

The box was fairly light, I shook it around and it made a rattling noise which told me that there's something solid inside, like a necklace of some sort. I then asked Steinmeier. "Hey you think I should open it?"

"I... I don't know sir."

I stared at the package for a moment before ripping the paper off revealing a wooden box with a hinged door on top. I opened it and saw a beautiful blue necklace. The dark blue lace was attacked to a big circular, what I think is an Ivory piece with the outer rim painted the same colour as the lace, the middle ring painted light blue and the inner one painted white. Below it was three white brushy type things attached.

"Damn sir, that looks plain yet good." Steinmeier quipped.

"I know." I put it back in the box and in turn put the box into my pack. "I'll bring this back to the general, you know he has crazy friends that like these kinds of shit."

"Yes sir."

I smiled before getting out of the tent. I walked around the camp for a couple of minutes waiting for the men to finish before getting back and sitting down on the stool. I sat for another ten minutes before the men was finally done, I got the men to line up beside the campfire and report in on what they've found.

All of them gave me more bills, Walter handed me a watch which looked creepily close to those expensive rolex watches back in our world, it has a second, minute, and hour hand which pointed to numbers around the watch in Chinese, one to twelve. _Huh so they also have twelve hour cycles... interesting. It says here that its... nine thirty already huh a four hour difference._ I put the watch aside and went on to the next item handed to me by Karl which was a folded piece of paper. I opened it to reveal that it was a contract of some sort which read 'You are to steal the avatar's necklace and bring it to a meeting point just outside of Xi Hai, my men will be waiting for your delivery and shall give you fifty thousand yuan upon the verification of the authenticity of the necklace, present this contract to get your reward'. Below the paper was two signatures. _Avatar? What or who the hell is that?_

I folded it back and put it aside. "Anymore?"

"Negative sir." Karl replied.

"So that means we're done, are the bodies in the tents?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Umm so chill out for five minutes and after that we'll be moving out."

"Yes sir, should we take some pictures of the encounter sir?"

"No... god no."

"Yes sir."

I placed the things into my pack and readied myself for the journey ahead.

* * *

"Sir you said the forest was about an acre, this doesn't look like a fucking acre." Jonathan angrily whispered.

"Hey calm down Jonathan and I'm very well aware of that. I was wrong, in any case we're going to continue on to that fucking city."

We had been walking for over half an hour with the forest around us still thick, the city was definitely getting closer, though we might not be able to reach it this night.

Steinmeier was on point with the rest of us in a single file behind him. He then suddenly raised his fists into the air and signaled us to get down. We all crouched and I went up front to find out why.

"Sir there are fast moving lights up ahead, hard to see it with NV on because of the lights from the city." Steinmeier said.

I flipped my NV goggles up and was temporarily blind because of the darkness but after my pupils have dilated I was able to see that there were indeed fast moving lights going from left to right and vice versa in front of us just over a mound in the trail.

"Sir do you think they could be... cars?"

"There's only one way to find out, come on." I jogged towards the mound with the squad following suit. Upon reaching the mound I crawled up to have a smaller profile. "Holy mother of god."

In front of me lies a concrete paved single lane two way road being separated with a white line with a fair amount of vehicles going both directions, and it has street lights placed every few meters. The dirt trail directly connects to the right side of the road with the road turning to the left and towards the city.

"Jesus sir, they all look... old, like in the nineteen twenties or the Model T." Steinmeier said.

"I know. Its so... weird."

By then the rest of the squad had also crawled up beside me and was whispering to each other. They've already flipped their NVs up so they could actually see and not blined by the light.

"Sir how are we going to cross that? I don't want to become road kill." Jonathan said.

"I don't think we need to cross, look." I pointed at the road. "It leads towards the city, all we need to do is to follow it and stay on this side."

"Oh right, nice one sir."

"Come on lets move."

"Sir if we follow the road then people would be able to see us, look the road is level with the ground and they're left hand drive, they don't even need to tilt their heads to see us. It doesn't even have barriers so if some crazy driver decided that he wants to kill those green things walking on the side then he can easily do it."

"Its fine, if they see us so be it. Its not like this is a special operation where secrecy is key. Our objectives were to find more about these lands and possibly establish some sort of contact, how the hell are we going to do that if we stay hidden in the shadows?"

"Alright sir, I understand."

"Now come on, I would like to reach the city before dawn."

"What are we going to do when we get there?" Walter asked.

"No idea, maybe go to their city hall or something of the same, or just walk around and ask people about stuff."

"While we're in full battle gear that's smeared with mud?"

"Exactly."

"Sounds fun."

"It is, now come on and get off your asses."

We got down from the mound and started walking parallel to the road. We walked for almost an hour with lots of cars sowing down when they got beside us and taking a peek out their windows but sped off when we turned and looked at them in the eyes. It was quite the fun experience, scaring people.

As we got closer to the city the lights kept getting brighter and the gigantic yellow light just gets bigger and bigger. We started to see smaller building pop up and the skyscrapers getting clearer.

"Sir there's a sign up front, what does it say?"

The sign was rectangular horizontally and was mounted on a pole about three meters tall, the sign itself was made of metal painted green with white words.

"Welcome to Republic City."


	4. 103: On The Lam

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: On The Lam**

"Welcome to Republic City"

"Huh sir?" Herman quipped

"It says so on the sign." I pointed at it. "Ten miles to the downtown area."

"Miles? they use imperial units and not metric, aw man."

"Hey its fine I guess, just imagine you're in America except everyone looks East Asian. Come on just a little bit more and we'll be at the suburbs."

We continued on and I checked the time on the watch. _Midnight already, most people should be asleep by now._ We walked for another ten minutes before we came across our first occupied building, a gas station of some sort. It had a wooden building which I assumed was a convenience store of some sort and several pumps being covered by a roof just outside of the building with the whole place being brightly lit. By then the forest had started to thin out with just a couple of trees here and there unlike before where the whole place was saturated with foliage. We laid down on our stomachs about a hundred meters away from the building and the streetlights, and I took my binoculars out.

"They've got gas stations?" Hans asked.

"No shit sherlock, how the hell would their cars get fueled?" Jonathan replied.

"You got a point. So corporal are we going to go talk to people or just avoid them?"

"We're going to need to talk to the locals sooner or later, might as well start somewhere." I replied. "Right then, I'll report to Outpost about it and afterwards follow me in and don't do something stupid. Just... just do as I say."

"Yes sir, we already were."

I took my radio out. The cons of being a squad leader is having a larger but more powerful radio than the men, the range of my radio is at least fifty kilometers while the less powerful but smaller and lighter 'walkie talkies' of the men can at most reach twenty.

"Outpost this is Expedition calling and listening."

"Expedition this is Outpost, how's the situation, over?"

"Outpost we are about to make contact with locals in a gas station approximately ten mikes from the downtown area, over."

"Roger that Expedition, ten mikes from downtown. How's everything going, over?"

"So far so good, discovered vehicles exist here in one niner two zero era type, over."

"One niner two zero type, roger anything else, over."

"No that's all Outpost, I'll report again after we finished interacting with the locals, Expedition out." I put the radio back into my pack and looked at the men. "Its time boys lets go, single file and I'll be on point."

We got up and started moving out. As we got closer I was able to see several vehicles on the station getting refueled, the drivers were still inside their cars while workers from the station were the one to refuel their cars and bring the money back and forth between the drivers and the cashier. _Huh, so just like some Asian countries then_

"Alright" I said "I think we should walk in from the front instead of creeping in from the back and try to act like customers."

"Yes sir." They replied.

We then changed our course and headed towards the road and afterwards followed it into the gas station while walking just outside of the vehicle lanes. When we arrived at the station both costumers and workers alike stared at us more out of curiosity than horror.

"Sir, they're all looking at us." Steinmeier whispered behind me.

"Of course they are, they've never seen men dressed in camouflage and having face paint on walking around holding... well iron stick with wooden attachments, and also our big ass NV goggles on our helmets." I replied as we head towards the main building.

"I know but still, it feels weird."

"Suck it up Steinmeier this is just the beginning." Jonathan said

I heard Steinmeier sigh before continuing. "God you're such an asshole."

"Thanks!"

"Oh god." _Argh, goddamned kids._

We entered the building and it was far larger than I thought. Around three fourths of it looked like a big convenience store with a few rows of shelves stocked with goods like food and auto parts, and a fourth of the building looked something like a diner with a single long table serving both as the table where customers would eat, and the boundary between the kitchen and the rest of the store. There was around a dozen people inside excluding us and all of them seemed to stare at us at the same time.

"Huh, looks... quaint." Walter said.

"Hey doc, you ever went into those old timer diner like the ones Hollywood shows in the movies?" I asked

"Jesus corporal I'm not that old." He pouted.

I chuckled. "It fine doc just joking."

"Excuse me sirs, do you need anything?" We all turned around to see an old man approaching us. He seems to be in his mid fifties and was wearing the same brown blue shirt as the workers except he had an additional red stripe over the front of his shirt. _A supervisor?_

"Ah well, do you sell water?" I said.

"We do! One yu-an for a cup, the pitcher's over that counter." He pointed out the counter. _Yu-an? Yu-an... yu-an... ohhh yuan! God they pronounce it weird._

"How much water does the pitcher contain?"

"A gallon, good for twelve cups."

"What kind of gallon is that? Is it imperial?"

He frowned. "What do you mean imperial? There isn't any other kind of gallon."

"Okay, just curious. My guys would refill their cante... water bottles so can you lead us to it?"

"Yes sir, right this way."

He led us to a the counter which on one end had an old school cash register, several bottles of wine, and a small rack of assorted goods like bubblegums and candies. The other end contained the water pitcher and a metal cup chained to the table, and a few bottles of milk.

"So we're supposed to drink the water from that one cup?" Walter asked.

"I think so, you know people back in the day weren't that into germs and bacteria doc." I replied.

"Hey they actually were, Louis Pasteur did the his experiments on microbes in the eighteen fifties and by the nineteen twenties people were already very knowledgeable to germs and stuff like that."

"I know doc, but I don't think the poorer people actually gave a shit about it, I mean yeah they did but I don't think they gave that much.."

"Well, at least people didn't drink directly from the pitcher, that would be bad."

"I know doc." I looked at the old man. "Excuse me mister, can we... get some water now?"

"Yes yes of course, of course, just pay at the register after you're done. Remember one yu-an a cup."

"Alright, thanks." I then turned back to Walter. "Hey doc can you get the money from my pack, all of it and count it please? The rest of you." I said to the men. "Go start filling your canteens."

"Yes sir." They replied.

I took my pack off and gave it to Walter and while he was holding it I got my canteen and threw it towards Herman to get refilled. I then went to the old man and put my hands on his shoulders. "Hey can I ask you some questions?"

"Sure sure, anything sir." He replied.

"I was wondering if there's anywhere nice to stay in the city, cheap ones of course."

"I see, you're travelers! I assume that's why you have weird clothes?"

"Yes, camouflage for... hunting."

"Ah, so that the prey won't see you coming, very clever. May I ask what is that big black thing in front of your helmet?"

"Its, umm... a binocular, easier to hunt when you just need to swing it down instead of needing to get it from the bag and holding it."

"Wah, very very clever! Where are you guys from? I've never seen hunters dressed like that before." _Shit._

"We, well... umm, came from the town of... Berlin..."

"Berlin? Hmm never heard of that."

"Its a pretty small town deep in the forests of the south, fairly secluded from the outside world."

"Is it still in the United Republic or in the Earth Kingdom... I know I know its going to be the Earth Republic in a few months but I'm used to it." _Earth Kingdom? Hmm._

"Its in the United Republic, far to the south... anyways about the hotels."

"Yes yes! Sorry I got distracted, not a lot of customers like to talk with clerks you see." _Just like in our world._ "there are a few hotels I could think of that's both nice and cheap, but most of them are in the water tribe district from of the city and you seem to be the Earth Kingdom type guy so there would be a fair amount of cultural differences there."

"Its fine as long as its nice."

"Okay then, one's called the Polar Eclipse and another is the Northern Lights."

"Sounds like strip clubs."

"They're legitimate hotels, though there are strip clubs close by if you want to visit them." he leaned on the counter.

"Okay then, do you know where the... umm, palace is?"

"Palace? There's no palace here, I think you mean the city hall."

"Yeah that's it, the city hall."

"Its in the downtown area though its carpeted with spirit vines especially after avatar Korra opened that new spirit portal in the middle of the city." He pointed at a small poster map that was on the wall behind the counter.

"Ah, how about the... police?"

"The RCPD? Well they're holding up quite nicely though ever since the battle a year ago triads are popping up everywhere, even equalists! Can you believe it?" _Equalists, so they're some kind of gang also._

"This battle, how did it go down."

"What have you been living under a rock or something?"

I glared at him.

"Fine, you did say you town was fairly secluded. So Kuvira's army with her giant mecha tank came from the southern pass which is to the east of the city, General Iroh already had men to try and stop her but that dumb ass president of ours just surrendered. So naturally Kuvira's got her giant mecha tank to enter the city but Avatar Korra, her girlfriend and friends went to stop her, in the city, that's why the city looked fucked, if the goddamned president just let it fight out outside the city then thousands of lives could have been saved, not to mention the billions of yu-ans worth of destruction and maybe the spirit portal could be outside the city and not in the middle of it. Well I suppose it did let Future Industries expand their construction sector to repair and rebuild the city." _Her girlfriend? Does that mean this world is more tolerant than ours?_

I was staring at him for a few more seconds, quite dumbfounded. _Spirit portal, giant mecha tank. What kind of a world is this._ "This Kuvira's giant mecha tanks, how big is it exactly?"

"Its as big as a skyscraper! I've seen it myself you know." He held both his hands up indicating it to be very very big. _What the fuck, a skyscraper. What the hell are they, Jagers from Pacific Rim?_

"Sir we're done refilling." Herman said as he threw my canteen back at me. "Used about one and a half pitchers."

"Okay, thanks." I looked for Walter and saw him sitting on the ground beside the shelved holding my pack. "Hey Walter, how much money do we have?"

"Huh?" He looked up disoriented. "Oh money, umm... twelve hundred total, if I read the numbers right."

"Hey can you give me my pack back and the money." _Twelve hundred, hopefully it could last._ I turned around back to the old man. "How much does the hotel cost a night?"

"Hmm." He started to count with his fingers. "I think its about two hundred sixty a night."

"Two sixty... do you know how much it would be for those expensive ones?"

"Expensive ones? Oh wow I could remember it to be over eight hundred yu-ans a night."

"Eight hundred, jesus."

"I know right, rich people."

Walter came up from behind and patted me on my back. "Here you go sir, the pack and the money." He handed them to me.

"Alright private, thanks." I put my pack back on and started counting the money. "Right umm how much is it for one and a half pitchers?" I asked the old man.

"One and a half." He stroked his chin and looked down. "It supposed to be eighteen yu-ans but since you're new here I'll give you a special discount... Fifteen yu-ans, heh?" He nudged my arms.

"Fifteen it is then." I handed him a twenty.

He took the money before giving me a small bow, then went to the cash register and afterwards gave the change of three one yuan coins.

"Thanks you, me and my men will be off then."

"Wait, are you going to the water tribe district now?" He held my arms in which I gently brushed off.

"Umm yeah."

"I can provide transportation... For a price of course." C _heeky bastard._

I crossed my arms and slightly frowned. "Enough for six people?"

"Of course of course, though it may not be the smoothest ride you'll experience. Its my delivery truck you see..." _His delivery truck? So he's the owner?_ "its quite hot at the back but its got benches, enough for at least eight people."

"Hmm." This time I'm the one stroking my chin. "How much is it?"

"Well since the district is pretty close... a hundred yu-ans."

"I'll talk over it with my men first."

"Very well sir."

I nodded before turning around and walked towards the men who were standing around and talking among themselves beside one of the shelves. "Hey the clerk offered us a ride in their truck to our destination in what they call the water tribe district, sixty yuan for all of us. You agree or not?"

They looked at each other for a few moments before Karl spoke up. "I'd rather take the ride than walk ten more miles with this heavy ass mg."

"Any objections?" I asked looking at their faces.

They all shook their heads. "Karl's right, we're tired of walking. We've been walking since we first came here which was like what, four hours?"

"Three, Herman."

"Yeah sir, three. It'll be nice to ride in their cars, have the experience. We're here to learn more about them anyways so why not? It'll be a nice touch to the report sir."

"Yeah you're right. Okay then we'll be riding."

They all smiled "Thank you sir." before continuing to chat with each other.

I turned back towards the old man "Alright a hundred yuan it is."

The old man's face lit up. "Why thank you sir! I'll go call my son now, he'll be the one to drive you to your destination since I need to keep my business running here." _So he is the owner._

"Okay, but for the payment I'll give you fifty now and the other fifty when we arrive at our destination... the Polar Express hotel."

"A down payment? Very clever, okay its a deal. You and your men should follow me to the back of the building where the truck is and after I get a word to my son, you'll be on your way."

"Thank you."

"No, thank you." He smiled before signaling us to follow him.

I whistled to my men to grab their attention. "We're moving out to the back of the building and get your asses ready for a rough ride boys."

* * *

"Of all the time period that this world could have existed it was the twenties where car suspensions weren't a very big thing. Gahhh! My fucking ass." Herman was complaining ever since the truck started to move.

"Come on Herman its just like having an ass massage." Walter quipped.

"Hey at least we got to ride in an authentic twenties car." Karl added

The truck we rode on was about the size of a pick-up except there are two compartments. The first one was the front where the driver's cabin and the engine (on the nose) was located. The rear compartment was just a big box with no ventilation and lighting at all since its original purpose was the transfer of goods. The truck had a gray overall color and bronze radiator grills with a metal gear in front of the nose just like how Ferrari did with the horse.

"Hey corporal, if this truck really was just for goods then why the hell did they even put folding benches in here?" Herman asked.

"I don't know, maybe they're human traffickers? Its impossible for anyone our side to see whats in here so they could've easily smuggled stuff anywhere." I took my hanker chief out and started wiping sweat from my neck and my forehead. "Damned it is the paint on our faces sweat resistant?"

"It should be for quite some time unless you start wiling it when the sweat is still wet. Damn is it hot in here"

"How much longer do we need to be in this fucking oven sir?" Walter was also wiping sweat away while trying to fan himself using a small piece of cardboard.

"Just a few more minutes, its just ten miles and we've been travelling for over twenty minutes already."

At the same moment the truck jerked to a stop and I heard the door in the front compartment being opened then closed. Moments later the double doors of the rear compartment opened with cool air and orange street lights rushing inside.

"Oh god that felt great." Herman threw his hands up and started wiggling around. "Polluted air never smelled better."

The old man's son was the one who drove us to our destination and he was also the one who opened the door. "I'm sorry if it took a while, can't go very fast when there are officers who would pop out suddenly from a corner. Anyways how was the trip?"

"Hot as fuck." I smiled "So we're here?" I got out of the truck still wiping sweat off followed by the rest of the men.

"Yep we're here. The Polar Express's just over that corner. I can't drop you off in front of it because it would look too suspicious, you know, six men in weird outfits getting off an unmarked truck and immediately proceeding into the hotel."

"Yeah it does." I reached for the fifty yuan that I've already prepared in my pocket. "Here you go, fifty yuan as promised."

"Thank you." He smiled and bowed as he took the money. "I want to let you know though its pronounced yu-an here not yuan."

"Ah, okay thanks. We'll be off then."

"Nice doing business with you!" He smiled once more before boarding the truck and driving away.

There weren't as many people as I thought were on the streets so me and my men sat down on the side walk trying to cool our bodies down. _That spirit portal sure is bright._

"Normally there would be more people than this in a hotel area... even when its midnight." I murmured as I fan myself with Walter's cardboard.

"I know right, sir. The bars and restaurants around hotels would normally be open twenty four hours." Jonathan remarked.

There are in fact quite a number of people and cars moving around though not in the same volume as in our world. They all looked at the six weirdly dressed green men sitting on the sidewalk fir a minute or two before continuing on with their business.

I wiped the last few drops of sweat off before putting the handkerchief back to my pocket. "Alright time's up boys, lets go."

I got off the side walk and started stretching with the men following suit. After stretching and checking our equipment we formed a single file with me once again on point and started walking towards the direction the boy said the hotel was in. We walked for several minutes and along the way people staring at us, just like what I expected. There were some drunks who were stumbling around the street but most people were sober and theie gazes were unforgiving.

We walked and walked and walked but we weren't able to find the hotel.

"Corporal are we lost?" Walter looked worried and was scanning the area for something.

"I believe so, or that boy fucking dropped us in the middle of nowhere." _A scam, should've fucking saw it coming._

We stopped right beside a closed restaurant and tried to get out bearings. As the men talked over where along the road we got lost and tried to backtrack I looked around the area and saw there were in fact several restaurants and bars, all closed for the night though. I looked up to the sign of the restaurant we were standing in front of. _Na... Naro... Narook's Seaweed Noodles. Hmm never though you could make noodles out of seaweed, I would like to try that._

Herman's shout got me out of my thoughts. "Sir I think we know where we got lost."

"Oh, so where was it private?" I crossed my armed and leaned on the walls.

"You see sir, the boy pointed at this direction but instead of taking a right on the second intersection we continued on and took the right on the third one, I think that's where we got lost."

"Well lets get going then." I walked over to the men "Right, Herman's on point since he thinks he knows where the hotel is." I patted him on the back and smiled. "Herman make us proud."

He gave a faint smile before leading the way.

* * *

"I think we're lost... again. This doesn't look anything like the district before." Walter was visibly disappointed and was already frowning a little.

"Yeah, I think I screwed up. Fuck!" Herman shouted the word out before putting his hand on his hips and looked down on the ground. "Well there goes shower and a bed."

"Hey come on cheer up boys, think of this as an adventure." I gave a fake laugh to try to rally the men. _We are so fucked._

The neighborhood we got it looked very dilapidated. The houses were made from pieces of wood and sheet metal and there were a few gigantic vines going around the place. _Damn, those vines are on fucking steroids._ There were people, very poor people to be exact that lived in the houses and they seemed unfazed that we were there, perhaps because they've seen enough bullshit to not care anymore.

"I think we're in the slums." I said. "Squad, hold."

The formation stopped and when I looked around we were surrounded by dilapidated houses.

"Sir we should keep moving, at least until we get out of here. You never know what desperate people will do." Herman warned.

"Okay... okay okay, lets keep going then."

We continued moving on and after a few minutes got onto a deserted street with vines now becoming denser. The street lights were on but the air around the place was very eerie. Walking down the road it abruptly ended with the vines making a walk with a just a small opening, a wooden sign board was placed beside the opening.

"'Please refrain from entering the spirit wilds without a guide, it is very dangerous.' Well that's ominous." I said as we stopped in front of the opening.

"So... should we continue on sir?" Herman walked up beside me and looked around.

"God no, didn't you hear what it said? Don't go in without a guide, i don't want us to get killed by some weird mutated animal."

"I think we should backtrack again, see if we ca go around it." Jonathan suggested.

"Yeah Jonathan's right, we'll go around then."

"Yes sir." They muttered.

Turning around, we were stopped tracks by a dozen men blocking off the road. _What the fuck? How the hell get here?_

"I believe you have something that we want." One of them spoke, he was wearing a red suite of some sort with a white undershirt and had a small bowler hat. He looked significantly older than the men he was leading and had a gray beard and a yellowish skin complexion with green eyes. "The Agni Kai does not take too kindly with people stealing our shit." _Agni Kai? Wait, how the hell did they know?_

"Sir, what the fuck's happening?" Herman nervously asked.

"Trouble." I replied. "Don't point your guns at them yet, I'll try to talk this out shit goes down you're clear to fire." I told the men.

I walked forward cautiously towards the man and he smiled before walking forward himself and stopped when we were around ten meters from each other.

"Now then boy I will assume you're fresh off the boat to not know what will happen if you cross with the triads. So... I'll be teaching you boys how to properly respect us." He grinned.

"I'm sorry but I have no idea what you're talking about."

"No idea? No idea!?" He shouted before throwing a small fireball onto the ground in front of me.

I jumped out of the way and heard my men raising their weapons, I turned my head around and shook it in disagreement which the guys hesitated before lowering their guns again.

"My men got killed by you fucking pigs and you looted them, don't tell me you didn't do it because I have eyes and ears everywhere!" He was now furious with his eyes gazing into mine. "I will ask one more time, where is the necklace." _So that's what he wants._ He made a small ball of fire on his hands trying to intimidate me while his men crossed their arms trying to send the message that they meant business. "I know all of you are non benders and don't know how to chi-block so give it now or I'll burn your faces off." _God I want to shoot these assholes in the face but the last thing we need is to be recorded as murderers in this world._

"Hey come on now, can't we talk it out?" I shrugged

"Talk it out? You son of a bitch who do you think we are, some fucking airberner? No, its either you give it to us or die!" The flame on his hands became bigger and more intense.

"So what will happen if we did give this necklace to you?"

"Then I'll let you go... after you've given us all your money and valuables as compensation to the trouble you caused us." _Bah, this won't work._

"Hans! Ready your smoke grenade and throw it on the ground on my signal, the rest of you prepare to run back and into the forest thing while Karl, try spraying a few bursts of the mg into these triads!" I shouted in German while still facing the man.

"What the hell did you say you fuck? I've been far too patient on you, give it now or die." The fire ball in his hands had now become very large with his men also making fireball of their own. _Fucking hell._

"Hans are you guys ready?!" I shouted again.

"Yes sir!" They replied.

 _Time's up._ "Now!" I fired a burst from my rifle and hurriedly ran back to my squad who also fired bursts.

I heard the triads shouting but I ignored it, Hans's smoke grenade immediately came into effect as the squad started retreating into the 'spirit wilds' and the fireballs started coming but every shot missed. Karl, our mg gunner fired several short bursts into the smoke covering us before he too fell back. We ran as fast as we could into the dark place all the while still hearing the frantic shouting of the triads, we continued until I could not hear the triads anymore before I halted the squad.

"That was fucking... just fucked up. What the hell do they want anyways sir?" Walter was panting as the squad formed a circle around me.

"He wanted the necklace of the avatar, said he'll kill us if we didn't give it to him and if we did he'll rob all of our stuff for compensation." I looked around the place and saw it just covered in extremely dense and large vines. _Too dark, need to use NV here._

"Jesus, thugs are indeed the same everywhere." He sighed.

"Yeah doc, now... we need to get out of this place through another exit, if there is even one. Ready your NVs, we wouldn't want to wake anything that's living in this place."

"They kept saying something about spirits didn't they? So does that mean spirits are real here?" Jonathan asked.

"Maybe, maybe not. If they are then we'll have to deal with it."

"How sir? Shoot it?" Herman interjected.

"Hey you never know." I grinned before signaling to put on the NV goggles. "We need to get moving, I have a feeling that these triads don't give a fuck about spirits and shit. Now umm, Jonathan you're on point." I pointed at him and curled my fingers seductively.

"Oh fuck off corporal." The gave me the middle finger which the whole squad laughed before he went in front of the squad.

The squad followed suit forming a line with me behind Jonathan and at the same time swung their NV goggles down.

The area around us was light green through the NV which meant that there is a fair amount of light in the 'spirit wilds'. "Alright squad, move out... that way."

We started walking in a northern direction through streets and buildings just plastered with vines, vines so dense you could barely see the buildings itself.

"Stay alert, you never know what might hit us here." I fiddled with my rifle fire selection from auto to semi.

I looked around the men and saw them raising their rifles alternating to the left and the right. _Good good, training's kicking in. Bloody hell is this place creepy as fuck._ I was still looking back at the line when I bumped into Jonathan who had abruptly stoped.

"What the hell Jon... Jesus." Right in front of us was a serpent like creature that looked like the Chinese dragons in painting though it didn't have legs, it had a vibrant colour of violet and red, was standing... or slithering in front of us looking at us with eyes that are as black as a black hole. "Don't... Move." I whispered to Jonathan in which he slowly nodded.

I looked to the back and saw the rest of the men petrified and all pointing their guns at it. "Put your guns down! We don't wank to provoke it for fuck's sake!" I whispered at them and after a short hesitation they lowered it slowly.

I turned around towards the creature and slowly walked towards it. _Shit its transparent? Jesus so it this a spirit?_ "Umm... Hi?" I said.

"You." The creature's voice echoed even though we were in an open area. "Did you not see the sign you humans put which said that you need a guide. Did you not see it or are you one of those pesky triads that wish to cut some spirit vines and sell it to other degenerates?" The creature started levitating and then flew to our right trying to surround us with its body.

The men once again raised their weapons but it held Walter's and Jonathan's rifles down. "Don't! Fuck sake follow orders!"

"Human weapons cannot hurt me, no matter what they are that you've brought from your world." _Our world? How did he know?"_

"What do you mean, our world?" I asked

"Do not test me human as I can sense the spirits within you. You are not of this world, I saw you coming out from the cave in Nan Shan mountain, it had long been known that the avatar sees strange visions of another world, visions which spoke of men in green... just like you." He suddenly lunged forward making us jump backwards before he receded and started circling us. "So, why are you here then human?"

"We were just passing... umm, through. We ran from the triads because we didn't want to kill them."

"You didn't want to kill them because you don't want to, or was it because it will make you look bad?" _Oh what? Come on how did he do that?_ He continued circling us which by now the squad had formed a circle.

"We, well... ugh."

"What?"

"Hmm, to not look bad."

"Ah, yes honesty. Something of a rarity in humans that come here on their own, they tend to lie a lot about their motives." He broke off circling us but came in front of me and rested his body on the street. "Tell me then, why should I let you through?"

"Sir, what the fuck is happening?" Herman nervously asked.

"Quiet! I'll tell you later." I whispered before facing the creature again. "We wanted to know more about this world... I've men a kid, a teen girl with a blue tattoo on her forehead and was wondering if I would be able to meet her again to clear some things up. She mentioned something about avatar... umm Ang or ugh Aang I think before gliding off."

"Ah I see you've met an airbender, this girl... does she have short hair?"

"Yes."

"Yes.. Yes... She is called Jinora and she served as a guide to the spirit wilds to... touristssss"

"Tourists, you hate them?"

"Yes I do, they come here not to seek spiritual guidance or any other spiritual activities, instead they come here to take what you humans call 'pictures' and sightsee. Though I will admit there are indeed some who come here for spiritual purposes, most are just rabbles." He started levitating again and went back to the position where I first saw him. "Very well human I shall grant you passage over the spirit wild, an exit is over there." He pointed using his tail. "Do not meddle with the spirit vines or I will know and I will be most displeased with it... and kick you out."

"Why can't you like kick us out now instead of us needing to walk all the way there?" _Shit that was a stupid question._

"Kick you out? I don't think you understand the magnitude of that. When I kick you out I kick your spirit off your body and that will cause you to die physically, your body may or may not be found by other humans but if not... then they will rot here just like that man." He looked to one of the vines.

I looked at it and saw several bones and cloth surrounded by vines growing over it. _Yikes._

"Go now, as I have been lenient on you today. Go before I change my mind." He then disappeared right into the street. _Fuck so spirits are real huh._

"Sir what the fucking fuck just happened!" Jonathan shouted out with voices of concern following.

"This is a lot to take in... Wait." I squatted down and pinched the ridge of my nose. After a few seconds I stood back up. "Okay lets start moving, I'll tell you on the way."

* * *

"Light! I can see the light in front of us!" Jonathan shouted excitedly. "This door or whatever they call it is definitely bigger than the ones we came in... hell I don't think there's actually a door, just a hole."

"Oh my god I can see it too." I exclaimed. "Come on lets run it, twenty minutes in this shit hole is more than enough for me! After we get out of here I would like to look for a nice quiet place for us to get some chow, right boys?"

"Yes sir!" They replied.

We jogged the last fifty meters or so of vine covered land before finally getting out of the spirit wilds and entered the light. It was blinding at first since I still had my NV on but even when I've already swung it up my eyes were still not focused enough to see clearly what's up ahead. _Fuck, should've took the NV off when we were still in that hell hole._ Everything was quiet except for the sound of panting from my men, it was immediately shattered by the godforsaken sound of a siren getting closer. _Police?_

I looked up and with my eyes now focused, saw a single police car (still looked like a Model T) with a man getting out. _Damn, its one in the morning and their police responds this quick? Wait, what is he responding to anyways?_ He had a clean cut hair and brown eyes, he wore a gray overall just like the cars, his clothes had a yellow badge on the left breast area and he only carried a pair of handcuffs on his belt, no weapons. _So is he one of them fireball throwing guys? Fuck now we're on the run from both the police and the thugs._

"Excuse me, are you guys alright?" He walked towards us extending his hands.

"Yeah we're alright, uhh thanks... officer." I shook his hands

"My name's Mako, I've got a call from Jinora telling me to wait for six guys in green which... well you're the only ones here. You do know her right?"

"I think so. I've only met her once in the mountains in front of a cave, she said a few words before gliding off."

"So it was you? Huh she kept telling us how she met those people in Avatar Aang's visions, her dad went with her to the cave and gone to the other side but no signs of you guys." _So it was them the residents of_ _Hürtgenwald_ _._ "She told me to bring you guys to air temple island." He looked at his car worried. "It would be quite a tight fit in there since its designed to hold five at most but it'll only take a few minutes before we get to the port." He turned around. "So, you want in?"

"Fine I guess, I'll tell my men about it first."

"Okay, I'll be waiting at the car." We waved at me before proceeding to go to the car and leaned on the hood.

I told the squad about it and most of them rejected it.

"Sir this is a fucking trap, he'll send us off to the police station or the bloody triads. You never know how corrupt they are." Herman said.

"But we don't have a choice now do we Herman? We need to find this Jinora right sir? Like what the spirit thing said she knows a lot about spirits and well this world." Walter replied.

"Settle down boys, okay we WILL go with the man and that's an order. This isn't a fucking democracy and I'm in charge so if I say anything you will do it, understood?!" I said.

"Yes sir." Herman grumbled.

"Good, I'll go tell Mako about it and we'll be on our way." I went to Mako and leaned on the hood of the car beside him. "I'll accept your offer."

"Great! At least Korra isn't going to get pissed at me now." He got up and proceeded to the driver's door.

"Korra? You mean the avatar?" I signaled the men to get into the car.

"Yeah she is, its a good thing that you're coming here with some knowledge of our world. It makes conversations easier." He got in and started the car in which I got up from the hood and went to the front seat.

"I see, so how long will this trip take?" I asked as Walter was the first one to get into the back of the car.

"Ten minutes max."


	5. 104: Envoy

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Envoy**

"So, umm Mako isn't it? How did Jinora know we were coming?" I asked Mako as the car was moving down the road covered with decreasing density of vines.

"The protector of the spirit wilds, Loung, told Jinora about it. You don't know how don't you?"

"No."

He sighed. "Where to start. Loung's main point of contact with humas is Jinora, if someone did something bad in the spirit wilds he can contact Jinora in turn she can call the police to resolve the problem. Jinora is an airbender in which they are a very spiritual group and through meditation is able to go to the spirit world. Do you follow?"

"More or less, but how can Loung contact Jinora then?"

"Umm, I don't fully understand it either. Its something to do with meditating and stuff the monks do, if you want to know more I think you should ask her yourself when we get to Air Temple Island."

"Alright, talk to the expert themselves huh?"

"Yup." He looked out to the window on his side. "There it is, Air Temple Island. The docks are just a few minutes in front us."

I looked out and saw the same pagoda like structure that I saw when I first came over to this side. _Huh, so it is a temple._ On the shores of the islands was a small wooden pier just a couple of meters long with and a couple of lamp posts and a few people sitting down, though the island was still too far to make out who they were.

"Hey would you look at that, they're waiting for you guys. Never seen them that excited before." He yawned. "And because of that they dragged me off my bed. First thing I'm doing when we get there is to take a nap."

I looked at my watch and saw it to be one in the morning. _Well it IS one so having only a mall amount of cars on the street is fairly nice._

"Hey corporal are we there yet? My fucking lap is getting crushed by Jonathan's big ass." Herman shouted.

"Hey you should be thankful I'm just a hundred and fifty pounds and that my ass has some fats in it." Jonathan smirked. "Unless of course you want me to jump up and down."

"For the love of god don't!"

 _Keep forgetting these guys are still in their early twenties. Never thought these kinds of jokes carry over all the way to the army._ "Few more minutes and we'll be there, then a boat towards the island."

Mako grinned at what he was seeing in the rear view mirror. "Your men are like kids."

"Well, at least it isn't as gloomy and boring as those older guys are."

"Yeah, especially when your boss is always grumpy." He turned on the radio which played jazz music. _Huh, its the nineteen twenties alright._ "How did you guys end up in the spirit wilds anyway?"

"We were attacked by umm... triads, firebending ones, Agni Kai I think, when we were outside one of the entrances to the spirit wilds. We could kill them all if we wanted to but I didn't so I ordered my men to retreat into the dark creepy place where I hoped we'll lose the triads which we did."

"Agni Kai?" He frowned. "I never thought they'll be that aggressive in this part of the city. Do you know what the leader of the group that attacked you looks like?"

"Yeah, umm he's got a red suite and a, umm pinkish bowler hat, maybe in his thrities."

"That's Raoyang, leader of the downtown sector of the Agni Kai. What the hell did you do anyway?"

"We umm... killed some of them outside the city and gotten.a necklace of some sort, avatar's necklace." I got the small wooden box from my pack and the contract. "Here, see for your self." I opened the box and took the necklace out and with the contract presented it to him.

The car stopped in front of a stoplight and Mako took the necklace and the contract, he inspected the necklace for a few seconds before reading the contract. As he read his brows began to curl and afterwards he sighed and rubbed his eyes. "So it was the Agni Kai who took it. Do you know why they were going to sell it?"

"No, they attacked me when I was... snooping around their camp. But after I got discovered they called me an equalist, what's that?"

"Equalist..." the stoplight became green and the car started moving again. "The equalists were an organization bent on removing bending from this wolrd, Korra defeated them four years ago and they have since scattered. The few who remained abandoned their original views, goals, whatever you call it and is now just another triad group wanting a piece of Republic City."

"I see, revolutionaries turned thugs."

He glanced at me. "You said you killed them, how?" _Its a trap._

"Your a cop arn't you? You're going to turn us in after we meet this Avatar, right?"

He was silent. "Its my job." He finally murmured.

"I know, and we're also doing our jobs."

"By the way, how is your world anyways? Like compared to ours." _Wow that was an abrupt change of topic._

"Our world? Hmm, in our world this... era, technology is umm... we are ninety years in advance in terms of technology. We do have cars also and all of them have air conditioning." I put the necklace and the contract back into the box before putting it into my pack.

"All? Wow that's quite expensive."

"Not exactly, air conditioning is very common and very cheap. Its also quite small compared to what you have now which is very very big."

"Hey how did you know... Hmm you did say you're ninety years in advance."

"Exactly, though we don't have those fancy fireball trowing experts."

"Firebending you mean, wait so none of you can bend any elements?"

"Umm no?" _Uranium bender?_ "What CAN you people bend anyways?"

"Well there's earth, fire, air, and water." _They arn't elements._ "Though the avatar can bend all of them, Korra could even energy bend. My brother, Bolin, whose and earthbender could lava bend and I, a firebender, could lightningbend."

"Wait what? What the hell you just shoot electricity out of your fingers?" I exclaimed.

"Yep pretty much, although it takes a lot of training and even then the lightning's path isn't very predictable."

"Of course it isn't, its fucking electricity! How the hell do you even... you know what I don't even want to know, it'll just confuse me more."

"You should let it all sink in first and don't try too hard to understand, it'll come to you. I don't expect someone from another wold would easily understand bending when it doesn't exist there."

"Yeah, kind of like explaining microchips to you."

He raised an eyebrow and looked at me. "A what?"

"Its a small piece of silicone with conductive metals like copper which stores ones and zeros as information about well anything you want to store."

"Huh." He looked back towards the road. "Definitely don't understand that... how ones and zeroes could store information"

"Hey corporal when we get there can you fill us in on what's happening?" Walter said

"Sure, works for me."

"Hey one more thing I want to ask you before we get to the docks, what do you call your language?"

"Its called Deutsch or in another language called English... German."

"Ger... German, D... Doi... I don't even know how to pronounce that."

"It takes time like you said."

"Right."

We arrived at a chain-linked gate with a small guards house to its left, the guard in a white and blue uniform with what looked like a white lotus on the front of his helmet lazily looked up and as soon as Mako saw him he waved. The guard acknowledged and opened the gate letting us in. We drove for several seconds more before stopping in front of another guard house and another man in the same uniform as before and once we got out he used the telephone which was an early one with a separate mouth and ear piece. He talked for a minute or two while we waited in silence before he put the phone down and pointed us towards the pier.

Walking down the wooden pier we were greeted by a woman wearing yellow and red robes, practically the same ones as the Dalai Lama of our world except she had hair tied into a bun.

"Hello lieutenant." She said. _Oh, Mako's a lieutenant._ She then gave us a quick glance before continuing. "Are these the men master Jinora was talking about?"

"Yeah they are, this is umm..."

"Corporal Geraldt Tchaikovsky of the Twenty First Panzer Brigade." I interrupted.

"Yeah, Jerald, and those are his men."

She looked at us closely before nodding. "Right this way corporal." She walked towards a small boat with an outboard motor on its stern.

We followed her onto the boat and after she fiddled a bit with the motor it revved to life. The boat started moving and in no time we were already in the middle of the bay with relatively calm waters which made the boat only roll slightly.

As we got closer to the island it became clear that there were four people waiting for us and all of them were wearing the Dalai Lama robes. I was finally able to see their faces when we were a couple of dozen meters away, one was a bald old man with a pointed goatee with the blie arrow on his head. _That must be their leader or something._ Another was a girl, with short hair and the arrow on her forehead. _That must be her... the one I met!_ The next was a younger girl, but she didn't have the arrow and her hair was tied into two buns, and the last was a boy about the same height as the elder girl had very short hair, and was sleeping on the floor. _Well then again its already past midnight._

"Those are the airbenders." Mako grunted. "They're very... peaceful so please don't try to make them angry."

"Peaceful monks... huh, okay."

"Sir, are those guys like... those Tibetan monks?" Herman squinted as he tried to look closer at the people on the pier.

"Seems like it private, now just to be clear Mako here said that they're a very peaceful kind of people so ease don't fuck shit up when we get there."

The men nodded. "What are we going to do after we meet them?" Walter asked.

"Hmm... I've no Idea, just go with the flow I guess."

He crossed his arms and nodded. Seeing his mood go down Jonthan added. "Oh come on doc don't be that old guy who doesn't want to have some fun."

Walter glared at him bit smiled. "There we go doc." Hr patted the medic on the shoulder.

"We're here, get ready." I ordered.

The boat slowed down to just under a knot as it docked on the pier and before the boat was properly docked I could hear one of the girls' high pitched voice asking question to the old man. _So its one of those hyper active kids huh._

With the boat properly docked we finally got onto the pier with Mako leading followed by me.

"Hey Tenzin, so are these the guys?" Mako presented us as he talked to the older man.

The looked to the girl with the tattoo in which she nodded. "Yes Mako that's him, right behind you."

He turned around to look at me and shrugged, before looking back at the monks. "Alright I umm got to go, still have some work to do."

"Really Mako? In the middle of the night?" The girl sounded pissed.

Mako waved her off as he got back to the boat. "I need to look at why the Agni Kais wanted Korra's necklace... oh and by the way they have it." He pointed at me. "Show it to them will you?"

I nodded and got the box out and presented it to the older man. His eyes widened as he opened it and inspected it closer as he took it out. "This is Korra's. How did they get it?"

"Don't know, that's why I'm going to look into it." Mako signaled for the woman in the boat to start the motors.

The man gave the necklace and the box to the tattooed girl. "Yeah dad, its Korra's alright and this message... fifty thousand yu-ans! Spirits, somebody really wants this."

Mako untied the boat from the dock and it started drifting away. "I'll come back tomorrow when Korra and Asami return and tell you guys whatever I find."

"Careful Mako!" The girl shouted.

Mako waved back before the boat sailed off. _He's not the smiling type of guy huh._

As they were having the conversation I observed the island we were currently in. It was fairly small but also high, the dock is the only part at sea level and in order to go up there was a very long stair that does all the way to the top which from my view contained the pagoda and some other buildings. "So... hi I guess." I spoke up.

"Spirits! We've completely ignored you! I'm so sorry!" The girl spoke up.

"Let us introduce ourselves. I'm master Tenzin and these are my daughters Jinora and Ikki." He pointed at the tattooed girl first before the other. "And my son Meelo... who is apparently not very excited to see you." He sighed as he carried his sleeping son from the floor. "Jinora please lead them to the dining area, I'll rejoin you as soon as I put your brother to bed, and Ikki, please be merciful when you ask questions."

The girls nodded.

"I'll be off then, he's getting heavier by the minute." He started walking up the stairs. _Damn that's a long way up._

Jinora clasped her hands after she gave the box to Ikki. "So mister, what's your names?"

"I'm Corporal Garaldt Tchaikovsky. These are my men, Privates Herman Steinmeier, Karl Eckstein, Jonathan Wagner, Walter Ruderford, Hans Hohenzollern." they raised their hands as their names were called.

"Oh, so you're soldiers."

"Yes, yes we are."

"Mister Tchaikovsky why do you have make-ups on?" Ikki asked us with a smile on her face which caught me off guard.

"Ikki don't be rude." Jinora glared at her.

"Its alright Jinora." I said. "Its kind like make-up but its purpose is so that we can blend in with the greenery of the forests."

"Camouflage huh." Jinora rubbed her chin. "I wanted to ask you about this, what's it like in the other side? Me and my dad got over there bit we didn't go far when we saw the town and before we came back we buried the platypus bear that got killed by, I assume you?"

"Uhh yeah, it was me but it tried to attack me." I tried defending myself.

"I know you're non-benders so the only way you could've killed it is with weapons, which I assume that is thing?" She pointed at my rifle.

"Ah yes it is, its called a rifle." I showed it to her. "No touching."

The girls observed it carefully. "How does it work?" Jinora asked curiously. _Damn it._

"Uhh... can I explain it later?"

"Sure. Oh and we should get going, mom will get mad when the food gets cold." She signaled for us to follow her which we complied.

"Sir again, what's happening?" Herman whispered.

"We're going to their dining area to eat, and that girl with the tattoo, Jinora, was definitely the one I met on the first day... they seem not really that excited to meet us."

"Yeah I though about that, looks like they were already expecting us."

"In any case don't let your guard down... yet. I trust them, but you never know what this world has to offer."

We proceeded to climb the stairs and afterwards went into a small wooden building that was connected to the pagoda. All the way to the top Ikki bombarded me with questions regarding our uniforms and weapons while I tried my best to answer them while my men just followed, not understanding anything we were talking about. The island was a small plateau with the top part containing all, including a small guard house with guards wearing the same uniform as the ones in the docks patrolling the island. One of them eyed me closely before moving on with his patrol.

Entering the dining area we were hit with the aroma of well cooked food but were immediately let down when we learned that they were all vegetarians. The table was rectangular with the ground underneath it cut away and the table placed into the slot which the edge of the hole being placed cushions as seats. There were two light bulbs illuminating the room and the walls appear to look like the traditional Japanese houses you commonly see in movies.

We placed our stuff including the packs and helmets down onto a corner of the room. Four of us were seated on one side with me and Walter on the sides and Tenzin, Jinora, Ikki, and another woman opposite of the four. They use chopsticks and the food were all vegetables and each of us were given a bowl of rice.

"I hope these are enough for you. It took me a while to prepare them." The woman beside Tenzin said.

"This is my wife Pema, and umm... i don't think you have introduced yourselves yet."

I repeated what I told Jinora earlier.

"I see, soldiers... well i assume you must be hungry after walking all the way here." _Walking, yeah right._ "Please, make yourselves comfortable."

"There's a small problem, my men don't know how to use chopsticks so is it okay if they take their sporks out?"

"Absolutely."

I nodded at the men and they took the sporks out of their MRE packages and started chowing down.

"Mmm, sooo good." Jonathan has his eyes closed as he savoured the taste of the tofu.

"Psst be more... modest, we're guests for fuck's sake not in the bloody cafeteria back home." I ordered as I saw the monks looking at him. "Master Tenzin, I apologize for my men being brash about eating."

"Its alright." He replied. "I understand we have cultural differences so it would not concern me that much. Go on and let your men enjoy their meals, seems like you haven't eaten in a while."

"Uh, thanks I guess... Master Tenzin."

* * *

The meal continued on loudly with the men talking amongst themselves and even though it was three in the morning, our hosts didn't get pissed off though Master Tenzin did seem to get more agitated as time went by. His daughters on the other hand were constantly asking me questions, questions such as politics, culture, spirituality (which Jinora deemed lacking) and above all our technology. It made me proud to explain what the hell a cellphone was to someone, pride that our world is far superior in technology than they are. They have cars, yes... airships, yes... but we have bigger and better ones.

The exchanges continued well after the men finished eating and seeing that they're satisfied, I sent Walter to report in on Outpost about our current situation which he grudgingly accepted as we went out of the room, grabbing my radio with him.

Finishing their plethora of questions it was my time to ask the girls about their world, the spirits, and this avatar that they constantly talk about. It was intriguing to say the least, to find myself in a world where spirits are in fact a thing and people have bending powers. All the while the girls were answering my questions I was translating them for the men so that they would also have an idea what they're up against with Hans actually taking notes.

It finally ended when Pema had enough and was going to sleep, forcing her children to also do so since it was way way past their bedtimes. Tenzin was relieved when the talking finally stopped and we got our stuff and was to be escorted to the men's quarters for the... morning i suppose. We said our goodbyes to the girls as they went on to the female quarters while Tenzin escorted us to ours.

The view on top of the island was impressive being able to see the skyline of the city in its fullest. Also impressive was the statue of Avatar Aang smack in the middle of the bay, kinda like how the Statue of Liberty was smacked in front of New York City. _Ah New York, this one's just like a made in China version of it._ The thoughts lingered for a while until we reached our room, it was a big room with at least eight mattresses on the floor. _Huh, so they don't have beds?_ It had just one light bulb to illuminate the whole place and the walls were made of wood with a single large round window with a view of the ocean.

Tenzin said the final goodnights before he closed the room with a the sliding door and disappeared.

"Well, better than sleeping on the forest floor. Say did you ask them if they've got cleaning services sir? Our fatigues sure's dirty as hell, be a shame to ruin the clean bed sheets." Herman was talking his fatigues off, as is most of the men retaining only their gray sweety shirts with the words 'Heer' in black imprinted on the chest area, and trousers.

"I'll just ask tomorrow, too tired for it now. Come on lets just have some sleep and worry about it tomorrow... I mean later." I said as I too took of my dirty fatigues. "Hey Walter, what did you tell Outpost?"

"Uh, we're taken in by monks and that the city looks like Hong Kong and New York smashed together in the twenties." He replied.

"Good, now lets just have some sleep."

"Yes sir."

* * *

"Hey Jerald wake up, hey come on."

"Hmm? Fuck what time is it." I opened my eyes to see Mako leaning on the door not understanding what I just said. _Oh right Chinese not Deutsch, oops._ I said again "What time is it?"

"Seven in the morning."

"Hmm." I sat up and looked around to see the men still sleeping away. "Well time to wake them up huh. Is everyone else up?"

"Yeah, Korra and Asami just arrive a few minutes ago by an airship."

"Ok" I stood up and walked towards my pack and got a whistle out. "This wouldn't be too loud now right? Since you did say an airship came over."

"Mmmhmm. By the way Tenzin got towels waiting for you on the showers down the hallway to the right and said that after you guys are done I'll lead you to the dining room, a different one from the ones you guys ate in last night, this ones bigger and have several tables." Came the reply.

"Okay." I noticed as the light shined his fave that his eyes have quite the large black marks. _Damn did this guy even sleep last night?_ I sighed and inhaled deeply before blowing the whistle as hard as I could in which the men immediately jumped out of the mattresses.

"Get up you fucking slugs! Now isn't the time to act like little pussies!" I screamed at the top of my lungs to try to get the drowsiness out of the squad as quickly as possible which it looked it it was working. "Form up front and center!"

The guys formed a line in front of me, this was normally done for inspection by the drill sergeants but since I'm the one in charge... "Alright get your toothbrushes and toothpastes and we'll be heading to the bathrooms now, move!" The men quickly scurried to their packs, got their things and hurriedly got back in line.

Mako seemed impressed by the speed of my men but it didn't really show on his face. _So is he suppressing it or does he really not have a lot of emotion?_ In any case the men properly fell in line and afterwards I started marching them towards the showers while Mako stayed back.

I was just under a minute when we got to the showers and by god does it look like home, the floors were white tiles and the walls were also wood, each cubicle had a shower and a wooden door. Outside the cubicles were also four metal sinks with shiny metal faucets. The men quickly rushed towards the showers and the two of us, Me and Walter, who were left behind decided to start brushing our tooth while waiting for them to finish showering.

"That was... fast." Mako said, sitting on the doorway and flicking a small fireball on and off.

"We're in the military alright." I replied. "Come on guys, lets get dressed don't want them to wait for us." The men rushed into the room and started putting on their uniforms which I followed closely behind.

The men after putting the fatigues, boots, and equipments on once again fell in line but this time on a marching formation on the hallway.

"Arn't you guys going to put some make up on?" Mako said.

"Nah, we're in a city. It won't do us any good." I replied.

"Do you really need to put them in line?" He stood up and walked to the front where I was.

"Yep, It'll make us look more... Professional. It'll also make those guards out there at least look at us as soldiers and not some thugs pretending to be one."

"Those white lotus guards? Yeah they're not really the friendly types but they get the jobs done anyhow." He crossed his arms. "Lets go then." He then turned around and started walking.

I nodded before barked the orders in German. "Forwaaaaard, March!"

* * *

"Ah Corporal Jeralt had finally arrived, I... we... have heard you shouting shouting a few minutes beforehand giving us time to compose ourselves." Tenzin spoke the moment we entered the dining room.

I felt my cheeks getting hot with embarrassment. _Well this is what you get for trying to be 'cool'._

The room was far larger than the ones we were in last night, this one had several windows and tables but the overall design was still the same: wooden walls with big wooden sliding doors. There were quite a few people in there with us, some of those whote lotus guards Mako was talking about, a guy in red with well groomed hair and two girls... _Holy shit they're hot._ My men stood at attention forming a line from my left to my right behind me, waiting for my orders.

"Right, corporal I would like to introduce you to very special people in this world. Over here we have Avatar Korra." He pointed at a lady with a brown skin tone, short hair and blue clothes with boots. _Oh she's the avatar, damn she's hot._ _Also quite jacked up for a girl, big biceps and all._

I gate a small smile. "Avatar Korra, nice to meet you." She came towards me, shaking my hands she replied.

"Hi corporal! Its amazing to finally see one of you... here in front of me." He returned a smile. "Tenzin had all sorts of texts of what Aang saw in his visions, never had one of them myself though, not a spiritual type of person." She pouted. "Anyways, good to see you!" She released my hand and took a few steps back.

"Now, here is Asami Sato the CEO or Chief Executive Officer of her company, Future Industries." Tenzin pointed at the other girl who was standing beside the avatar, she got gorgeous long black hair with a very pretty face with green fiery eyes to accompany it. _God she looks a hell of a lot sexier than the avatar._

"Hi there." She came up and shook my hands. "Delighted to finally meet you, I didn't expect you to look very much like us." She had a warm smile. "If it doesn't bother you I would like to talk more about your world after this."

"Sure.. uh, ma'am. Whatever you say." I stuttered.

She grinned before taking a few steps back.

Tenzin continued. "Now we have General Iroh II, he's the commander of the United Forces... its our military you see."

"Corporal." He greeted me and before he came close to me I made my decision to salute him.

"Squad! Preseeeeent, arms!" I shouted, saluting him at the same moment while my men did so too but with their weapons.

He was plesantly suprised and a second later he returned a salute. _So they salute just like us eh?_ I lowered my arms after he lowered his and ordered my men to 'order arms'. I then walked forth to shake his hands with him grinning.

"Corporal! I see that our militaries have quite a lot in common." He shook my hands then looked onto my men who were still standing at attention. "I believe that is unecessary corporal, have your men relax a bit. This is more like an introduction and not a full military affair... yet" He grinned once more.

"Uh, yes sir." I turned around, ordered my men to be at ease, then got back facing the general. "Good to see you general."

"Likewise corporal." Smilng he got back to where most of the people are standing as Tenzin continued.

"Now corporal, this is our ministerer of foreign affairs Haoyung."

He came forward and shook my hands. "Hello corporal."

"Hi" I replied with a straigh face. _Politicians? For fuck's sake, I mean I understand that they're a democracy and all just like us but why here? And a minister of foreign affairs? Are they that excited to make some kind of embassy?_

"Ah, I see that you are a bit puzzled as to why I'm here, are you not?" _Wow, politician indeed and a clever one too._

"Uh yeah minister."

He looked back at Iroh slightly unsure but as Iroh nodded he turned back and blurted out his reasons. "My government, our government had been... talking within ourselves how to best contact yours, so we decided that if you approve of it then we shall follow you through to your world and make contact with your government."

I was quite stunned at what i heard. _Fucking hell we have just got here a day ago and now he wants to have diplomatic bullshit with us? Are they really that quick? What the fuck?_

"So corporal, what say you?"

I realized that I was just staring into him blankly. "Huh? Well i still need to ask MY general about it, you know, chain of command and all that stuff."

"I see, well then we shall meet again soon."

"Wait, to be clear who's coming?"

"Me, General Iroh, Avatar Korra, and Ms. Sato."

"Woah woah woah, hang on a minute. So a minister, the HEAD OF THE ARMED FORCES, THE spiritual leader and a CEO?"

"That's right."

"What the..." I threw my hands up. "Oh come on. Care to tell me why?"

"Only if we're going to the your world." _Oh you cheeky fuck._

"Ugh fine, I'll ask command about it."

"Thank you." He bowed "We'll be waiting for their answer then."

"Yeah. By the way Tenzin can I go out for a moment, I'd like to make a call first."

He frowed. "Call? Our phones are at the other building, we don't have one outside."

"No worries Tenzin i have a radio."

He frowned again before realization hit me. "No Tenzin, our radio isn't the ones used for listening at night, its more like a wireless phone."

His face lit up as he understood. "I see. Well see you later then."

"I'll be very quick, few minutes tops." I waved at the guys standing. "I'll be back."

My squad staryed behind since It'll be such a hassle to move everyone out abd then back in again.

Getting onto what looked like a small garden I took a seat at one of the wooden chairs spread throughout the place and took my radio out. "Expedition to Outpost, Expedition to Outpost, how copy?"

"Hey expedition, this is Outpost, what's up?" _Well so much fore radio discipline._

"Outpost I think we have a problem."

"What is it?" His voice suddenly became more serious.

I sighed. _Fuck, where do I even start?_


	6. 105: Home Sweet Home

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 5: Home Sweet Home**

March 22 (D + 7)

"General Braun, this is General Iroh... General Iroh, General Braun." I introduced them as they glared at each other.

After a second or two General Braun extended his hands. "General Iroh, I'm very happy to finally see you. I'm sorry that it took over four days for your request to be processed since you know... Politicians."

General Iroh shook his hands. "Likewise General Braun."

It took four days after I sent General Braun the message about Iroh and the guys from the United Republic coming to our world for the message to arrive straight from the Chancellor giving me the go-ahead to bring the four of them back to our world. The Chancellor wanted to meet them for some "diplomatic maters" which would generally mean trying to squeeze as much out of them as possible. The message also gave me strict orders to continue keeping the existence of this portal classified until further notice, and that appropriate action would be taken if I broke the order. _Well here comes the Gestapo tendencies of the intelligence agency._

"Uh so sir, this is Avatar Korra, she's the spiritual... leader... thingy; Miss Asami Sato, she's the CEO of Future Industries which is like the Ford of their world, and Minister Haoyung who is their foreign minister." I presented them one by one.

General Braun shook their hands, smiling, before offering them seats in front of his office desk. "Please have a seat, oh and corporal..." He walked over the other side of the desk and sat down on his chair. "Go get an extra chair from the secretary outside and sit, it would be rude to keep my translator standing throughout the conversation."

"Right away sir." I got out of the office, asked for a seat, came back in, and sat on the side of the table.

"Now where shall we begin... so much questions... ah yes! General Iroh, you ARE the head of your nation's military am I correct?"

"Yes I am General, and I suppose you are...?"

"Oh just a Brigadier General, not those fancy guys up top." he took out a cigarette from a drawer of the table. "Do you smoke?"

"No, thank you. Your corporal here is a very disciplined man, huh hope I could say that to most of my soldiers."

"Why discipline is the heart of an army!" He exclaimed. "Lack discipline and the whole bloody thing would collapse onto itself!" The general putt he cigarette back into the drawer then took his laptop out. "Okay so this is one of our technologies, it has video, uh mail, pictures, and so many more."

"Very interesting." Asami blurted. "Its so small, yet does so much." _Heh, that's what she said._ "But why would you want to have it larger when your cellular phones have the same capabilities and be smaller?"

"Miss Sato, may I interrupt" I took my phone out and placed it on the table.

The smiled back. "Just call me Asami."

"Uh okay then. True the phone is indeed smaller than the laptop but the processing power is far less. Processing power... its like how many actions it can do in a certain time. For example i want to build a small shack, with five people lets say as the phone I can build it in a few days, but with twenty or more people being the laptop I could build it in just a day or so."

"So just like the output of a production line."

"Exactly."

"I see, that's amazing. All these technologies, our society could improve so much." _Yeah, that's if the government didn't put a 'national security' stamp on all of it._ "Korra, what do you think?"

The avatar just nodded. "Yeah they're awesome... Asami, the moment we crossed the portal I felt weird. I couldn't feel any connection to the spirit world at all especially after we're this far from the portal now."

Asami frowned, clearly worried. "It'll be alright Korra, hey we're in another world remember?"

"Yeah, I guess so." She gripped Asami's hands tightly before repeating "I guess so."

While that was happening I was busy translating everything they said to the general who was listening closely.

"So, they're a couple? Like married?"

"No sir, just girlfriends."

"Ah, so the four days that you've stayed there how high is their homophobic meter considering they're like the spiritual leader and a CEO?"

"Not very high actually sir, of course there are those few nut jobs like in our world, thinking it'll be the end of the world and such but other than that... meh."

"Right, while they're still talking among themselves." He took a quick glance to see the four of them trying to figure out how to use the laptop which I missed out the first part, before the general continued. "The brass up top wants me to give them accommodation as discreetly as possible and as close as I can get them to an apartment block which will be the meeting place which, by the way happened to be close to your parents apartment in the Berlin suburbs. _Oh... Is he going to do what I think he'll be telling me to do?_

"Here." He handed me a small brown envelope "Two thousand Euros, enough to buy them some clothes to blend in, food, oh and compensation for giving troubles to your parents." He grinned.

"Uh, sir... I'm not sure about this."

"Hey come on just accept it, it'll be a pain in the ass to send another runner to the General Staff since they insisted that our communications are being tapped my... I don't know, the NSA maybe, so instead they decided to have the old fashioned pen and paper communications."

"Yeah, but sir..."

"Hey if there's any leftovers from the two thousands I gave you then it'll be your bonus then."

"Oh" _Okay think about it, give the four some nice clothes, shock my parents and maybe make them hate me, then try to make them blend in in public with the leftovers as bonus, huh._ "Is this an order or is it a... favor?"

"What do you want it to be corporal?" _Your playing THAT game huh._

"Alright, I'll accept it general. Do I have anyone that's like my backup or something."

"You could if you want to, fine by me just don't pick the talkative one yes?"

"Very well sir." I took another glance at our visitor and Asami had pretty much taken over to being the one pressing the buttons. _She really is an engineer by birth._

* * *

"There you are Walter! I've been looking for you." I got into the canteen and sat down beside him as he was eating.

He glanced at me before continuing to eat. "What's up corporal?"

"Listen, I've got a proposition for you."

"What is it then sir?" He replied

"General Braun gave me orders to, uh accommodate our guests in my house and I want you to go with me, need some wisdom from older gentlemen like you."

He snickered and took another bite at his sandwich. "Wisdom, ha! I'm in, any other guys coming with us?"

"Nope, just the two of is and the two girls, General Braun wants to treat the two older guys to more formalities and wants the 'younger ones' to have fun."

"Fun?" His eyes lit up.

"Yeah... what, no! Not THAT kind of fun... goddamned it."

"Yeah yeah I know sir, just fucking with you. So where are we going?"

"My house, which is also my parents house in the Berlin suburbs." I leaned in and started whispering. "Listen, the general said that this will be strictly classified and that nobody else should know where our guests are going. It a matter of 'national security.'" I curled my fingers, gesturing the quote. _God even I can't believe I'm saying that._

"Uh huh, so for how long?"

"Two, three days maybe. Hey we still need to buy the girls some modern clothes to blend in better you know."

"Wait, what about the guys? Where are they staying?"

"With General Braun I assume, or maybe with other politicians, I don't know."

He went silent for a moment, in deep thought. "Did they give you money?" He finished his sandwich and compressed its plastic wrapper into a ball.

"Yeah, two thousand euros. Though they won't give me anything else, so we'll need to take the ICE back to Berlin."

"Two thousand... wow."

"Hey now, that's taxpayer money your thinking about, lets put it into good use." I pat his shoulders and smiled. "Come on, you done?"

"Yes sir "

"Lets go then."

We stood up from the chairs and after he threw the wrapper away we proceeded back to the general's office where they're having a meal, though the general himself got to the officer's quarters instead since it would be awkward to continue being with the guest while he doesn't understand a thing they're saying.

The two of us walked back to the office building under the bright and sunny spring weather. Getting back to the office, I knocked on the door before opening it and stepping in. _Oh, General Braun's back._

I saluted. "General Braun I've made my decision, I would like for Private Walter Ruderford to accompany me on this assignment."

Walter stepped in a moment later and saluted. He took a quick glance at the girls before whispering ever so softly. "Damn sir, they really are hot eh?" I just kept my mouth shut.

"Okay, I'll do the paperwork for it, Walter Ruderford right?"

"Yes sir." Walter replied snapping out of his thoughts..

"Good, well Geraldt ask the girls if they're ready to go."

"Do you have other translators sir?" I asked.

"Yeah, I've got one coming straight from the top, why? Its a matter of 'national security.'" he chuckled. "I like how they say it in order to give me priority over most of the stuff."

"Uh okay sir." I then walked closer to the girls. "Ladies, umm, shall we uhh, go now?"

Korra smiled. "Okay, what do you say Asami?"

"Lets go then, I'm excited to see their trains." She smiled back. _Aww how cute, lets get going then._

The two of them stood up and got their backpacks before getting out of the room but not before saying goodbyes with their other companions.

"Oh and Geraldt, Walter!" General Braun said as we were about to get out of the office. "Don't forget to change from your service uniforms into civilian ones yes?"

"Yes sir." I replied.

"Good, both of you are dismissed."

We saluted before getting out of the office where the two girls are waiting.

"You said we were getting new clothes to be less conspicuous?" Asami was standing there with her dull red jumpsuit with a gear patch on the shoulder.

"Yeah, you'll look silly in those, the both of you."

"Hey, this is the most modern style we have." Korra said a she pointed on her blue sleeveless shirt and blue baggy pants.

"Our styles of clothes might be a bit more... revealing than what you're used to."

"How much more?" Asami asked.

"Well, ehhh. It depends. You'll see when we get to the shop, its in the town a few kilom... miles away from the base."

"Okay." Came the reply."we have so much do talk about on our way there."

"Yeah... yeah we do."

* * *

"Wow these pants are a lot tighter than I thought." Asami opened the door of the changing room and showing off to Korra who was standing just outside.

"I told you Asami you should get these, what they call cargo pants." Korra lifted her leg to make a point. "See? I can easily fight in these, and their sneakers are so comfortable."

Me and Walter were sitting on a bench opposite of the changing area, looking at the ladies. "Girls, the same anywhere huh?"

"Yes sir." He replied, then continued on playing on his phone.

Korra was wearing a olive green cargo pants and sneakers with a light blue t-shirt, Asami on the other hand had a red t-shirt and showing off the skinny jeans.

"I don't like it, its too tight." Asami said to Korra, then turned towards us. "How in the world do you people wear these?"

I shrugged. "Beats me, I never really understood myself. That's why I wear these fairly loose jeans."

She pouted, then grabbed Korra's arms and headed towards the girl's clothes. "Come on Korra, help me choose something better."

"Alright 'Sami."

The both of them smiling as they started sifting through the clothes, and the store clerk looking at them every now and then. _Hopefully he'll think that they're just tourists._

* * *

"Spirits, its so long and fast!" Asami exclaimed as the white ICE train stopped in front of us. She continued looking towards the front and back still gawking at the length and size of it. "This is amazing! And the doors, they're automatic?"

"That's modern engineering for you. Come on and lets find a seat."

Asami had chosen to wear a black skirt instead with sneakers and all of us wore heavy jackets as the Autumn/Fall temperature if very cold... around ten degree celcius. She complained a bit in the cab on our way to the station of how I failed to tell her how cold the weather was but there's nothing we could do.

We got onto the train, the seats were arranged on a 3-2 so we decided for Asami and Korra to be seated in the row in front of ours. After several more minutes at the station the train finally started moving and Asami got even more excited.

"How fast can the train go?" She asked.

"On the route we're taking about two hundred fifty kilometers per hour which is, uhh... a hundred and eighty miles per hour I think."

"A hundred eighty? That's... that's so amazing."

"Hey now, calm down Asami." Korra interrupted, smiling, and leaned over for a quick kiss on Asami's cheek. "Lets enjoy the ride and you can nerd it out later."

"Alright Korra, alright." Asami smiled back.

I cleared my throat. "Ladies if I may..." I took my phone out and went to Wikipedia on Mandarin and gave it to Asami. "You can read more about this train system here, its not as much as the English version but its good enough."

She took my phone and the both of them started reading. "This is what you call a smart phone right?"

"Yeah, if you want to read more just tap here, and then the keyboard should pop up." I showed them how to do it, including typing Chinese characters.

"I see, thanks"

"No problem, read as much as you like, the trip will take a few hours."

She smiled back before continue to read on the phone with Korra. _How am I going to explain the the holocaust to them? And all those other terrible things this world had done to each other?_

The two of them read throughout most of the trip, Asami had become quite adept at tapping on the links on the pages and bringing them to other topics: ICE... German... Germany... World War One... World War Two... _Shit, here we go._

"Sixty million dead... what kind of a war was this?" Korra shook her head in disbelief, so did Asami. "How did it get that far?"

"That's world war two for you, six years of gruesome war. The largest and deadliest in our history." I replied.

"A war yes but sixty million, DEAD? These... bombings of cities, all those... murders."

"That's total war, where everything that contributes to the war effort of a nation, be it civilian or not, would be targeted."

"That's so wrong." Asami retorted. "The fire nation during the hundred year war... even when they wiped out the airbenders... they never burnt cities to the ground, kill millions of innocent people... to try winning the war."

"That's the price of technological advancement." _Oh boy I can't wait to get to the atom bombs. Sarcasm*_ "It made killing people a lot more efficient. Yet through that war, technological advancement made leaps and bounds." _Fuck I sound like I'm defending the fucking war._

"Its good, but not in a war!" Korra almost shouted, but she was able to control herself.

"Korra you'll need to understand, there is not one day in our history that there isn't a war of some kind somewhere in the world. We HAD made an organization, the United Nations, in order to prevent such a catastrophic event from ever happening again, but it is not enough to stop every war. I envy your world, going through seventy years without a war breaking out in either of the nations."

The girls went silent, Walter then butted in. "Sir, what's that about?"

"World war two."

"Shit, uhh, good luck sir."

"Yeah, I'll need that."

"This United Nations, what is it?" Asami asked.

"Find out for yourselves, type it in in the search box."

She hesitated for a bit before she typed it into the search box. "Is it this one?"

"Its the one with a blue flag... yeah that's it."

She started reading reading with Korra in silence for several minutes. "For how long?"

"Hmm?"

"For how long can it keep the peace? This... beautiful country (literal translation of America in Mandarin) and middle country (literal translation of China in Mandarin) and this... Ru... Russia? They can't even all agree on what to do in the security council. How much longer would it take for it all to collapse?"

"I... they, uhh..." I began scratching my head and leaned back on the seat. "Its not that simple... its, uhh."

"Having a though time eh, corporal?" Walter nudged me.

"Of fuck off... let me think alright?"

"Yes sir." He winked.

"So, umm." I leaned forward to get closer to the girls. "its very difficult for me to explain, its just... politics. Since you would be meeting with our government maybe you should ask them to be more clear?"

"I want to know your opinion on this." Korra replied.

"I... hmm, this system is the best we've got going. There was another one that preceded it, the League of Nations, which failed horribly and failed to stop the Second World War. So far there isn't a third one because of the United Nations." _And because of nukes._

"Okay just want to know more being the avatar and all."

"I understand." _Well, mostly._

"So, how long till we get there?"

"Uhh." I glanced at my watch. "An hour maybe. Still pretty cold to where we're going."

"Not as cold as where I came from."

"I know." _Their world, where there are civilizations on both poles of their planet._

* * *

"Here we are, Berlin-Gesundbrunnen station."

"Wow, even the stations are huge." The girls were on the windows of the train looking out and being awed by the structure."

"Don't you have railways in the other side to?"

"Yeah we have, but the stations arn't this big. Even the Central Station in Republic City is maybe just half the size of this."

The train slowly came to a stop and we got out carrying our backpacks, walking around the station the girls kept looking around especially Asami in which she kept asking questions on the structure of the building. _Really is an engineer huh._ We made our way out and hailed a cab, it drove us to the suburbs where my parents live... well technically where I live also since I didn't move out before I joined the army. There weren't much traffic on the way since it was just two in the afternoon, far too early for rush hour.

"Does your parents know you're coming?" Korra asked. Walter was sitting in the front while the three of us at the back since he won't be able to converse with the girls anyways.

"Yeah, I told them I was on early leave and also brought some friends."

"You told them about us?" She muttered.

"No, of course not. This was supposed to be clandestine remember?"

"Yeah, but why did Iroh and Haoyung go with your general while we came with you?" Asami was looking out the window and was taking in the sight of tall buildings giving way to shorter ones.

"Well, my guess is that since Iroh's the commanding general of your armed forces and Haoyean is the foreign minister, they have more to discuss than the both of you... no offence though. That's just how politics work. I doubt that my government would see the both of you less but being a 'spiritual leader' in THIS world doesn't really come with a lot of credentials to begin with."

"Hmm, so there really is no spirits here?" Korra asked.

"Well, that's quite a touchy subject." I started rubbing my neck. "We don't have any evidence of their existence but people still believe in them."

"Do you?"

I hesitated. _Whatever my answer is going to backfire, I guarantee it._ "No, no I don't. But seeing that there's that dragon thing that confronted us in your world I'm inclined to believe in it but not here, as far as I know there arn't any in our world."

"I see. Maybe that's why I don't feel any connection here, even my bending feels weak, very weak."

"Are you sure you're going to be alright?" Asami looked away from the window and she seemed quite worried.

"Of course I would, I'm the avatar!" Korra rolled the sleeves of her jacket up and flexed her muscles. "You don't get these from just bending." _She really is jacked, god I think she's even buffer than me!_

"Hey corporal sorry to interrupt you bonding with the girls but" Walter sneered. "The cab driver said we're here, time to pay up."

"We here? Wow that was fast... Here." I handed him a twenty euro bill. "Just give the change later." I then turned to the girls. "Come on ladies we're here." I got out of the cab and absorbed the view. _That small green patch, yup still there, ohh I think our neighbors' changed. What about the parking space? Hmm, still there though it looks a bit smaller that I remembered._

"So... Which one of these if the apartment?" Asami got out of the car with Korra following closely behind.

"Its that one." I pointed at a white building ten floors tall. "They're at the seventh floor. Come on."

The group walked into the building with Walter running to catch up, I still had the keys to the building so I didn't need to call the intercom to get in. We got to the seventh floor a minute later and turned left towards the second unit of the floor.

"Unit seven oh two... home sweet home" I murmured. "Now just to be clear." I turned around. "I didn't tell my parents that I'll bring girls so they might think, you know."

"Right, so..." Korra replied.

"Just follow my lead." I winked back before proceeding to ring the door bell. _Phew calm down, It had only been a year since I last saw them. Calm down._

Nothing. _Hmm, they might be asleep._ I rang the dorr bell once more and again, nothing. _Huh, maybe I should call the phone and..._

The door opened and viola my mom was in front of me. "Geraldt! Oh my its so good to see you again!" She hugged me tightly before I could react. "Its been a year."

My mom was just a bit shorter than me ( 5'5") and had short gray hair, my dad on the other was a bit taller than my mom (5'7") but still shorter than me, he had black hair and was fairly skinny for his height.

"Yeah ma, it had." I replied. _Thankfully we speak Mandarin in the house so the girls won't have a hard time conversing with my parents._

She got some distance between us and her eyes immediately fell upon the 'guests'. "Oh my Geraldt you didn't tell me you were bringing girls!" _Ugh, she's far too excited for this._

"Yeah ma, sorry I didn't... anyways this is Korra, she's from... Shanghai."

"Hi! Nice to meet you." She shook my mother's hands with a smile.

"Uh ma, this is Asami Sato... she's also from Shanghai but was born in, uhh... Kyoto."

"Hello Mrs. Tchaikovsky." She came forward and shook my mom's hand.

"And lastly this is Private Walter Ruderford, a friend of mine in the army. He's also our squad't combat medic."

"Good to see you madame." He also shook her hands.

"My my Geraldt you brought so many people here! I thought maybe there were just two of you! Well then come in, come in!" The waved for us to follow her in.

The apartment was fairly big by modern standards with a small kitchen to the left of the entrance, the living room/dining area to the right and a small hallway directly forward with a room on either side.

"Hey ma, where's dad?" I said as I closed the door behind me.

"Oh your father's out to buy some food, we didn't know you'll arrive this early." She then directed us to the living room where there are two couches perpendicular to each other an a television on one of the walls. "Come, sit. You want anything to drink?"

"We're fine miss." Asami replied.

"Okay then, by the way what's you surname Korra?" My mom asked.

"Surname, I, uhh..."

"Chun." I said. "Korra Chun, ma."

"Yes yes, Chun." Korra repeated awkwardly as we sat down on the couches with Korra and Asami on one couch, and me, Walter and my mom on the other.

"Chun! That's nice, my surname was Chun too before it needed to be changed to Tchaikovsky." She sighed. "It was some dark times back then."

"Well, what happened Mrs. Tchaikovsky?" Asami asked. _Oh god no, my mom's just going to ramble on for ages._

And so she did, for forty five minutes to be exact. She told the story of how my dad's parents escaped from the communists in China to the nearest country which was the Philippines, then after a few months getting their papers processed they emigrated to Germany. The story was almost the same for my mom's parents except they got directly to long after the civil war, my mom was already born then and her whole family somehow miraculously got out of China in the seventies during the height of the cultural revolution.

Thankfully through the timely arrive of my dad my mom finally stopped. He brought home pizza and sausages. _Talk about reinforcing stereotypes._ The group then went onto the dining table and started eating together, it was Korra and Asami's first time eating pizza so I had to teach them the 'proper' way of consuming those yummy pieces of flour.

"So Geraldt." My dad spoke. "How's army life?"

"Well you know, training and stuff. I haven't been deployed anywhere since last year in Afghanistan."

"Yeah I can see that, so which one is your girlfriend." He teased.

"Pa no, they're just... friends."

"That's how relationships start son, maybe I should ask the girls themselves huh?" He had that evil smile on his face.

"Pa, no."

"Too late boy." He laughed. "So Korra, what was your first impression of him?"

"Hmm?" Korra bit down on her slice. "Oh, uhh... he was nice. Well he was on duty then so he didn't really say much."

"On duty?" My dad started looking suspicious. _Uh oh._ "Where did you guys meet anyways?"

"Its was... in Hannover when I was a tourist a few months back."

"Ah, so with your friend Asami?"

"Yes sir." She replied as he finished off her slice. "Hmm, that was quite good."

 _I should get the group moving before my dad though of anything else embarrassing._ "Okay dad we're done, I'll show them the room first before I come back and help you clean up." I then stood up and motioned for them to follow me.

"Don't do anything naughty now Geraldt." My mom chuckled.

"Ugh ma! I'm twenty five for god's sake."

"Yes but you still live here, technically."

"Ugh, I'll be back ma." I continued onto my room with the group following.

"Your parents seems lovely." Asami scanned my bookshelf while Korra sat down on my bed.

The room was a twenty squared meter rectangular room. With a single-person bed opposite of the door, a small desk with my computer on the right and a bookshelf containing all my stuff including DVDs and old textbooks on the left, a window above the bed with an air conditioner beside it.

"Yeah they really like to tease me when they can." I chuckled, then saw Walter on the corner of my eyes who was quite bored. "Aw doc come on cheer up, we've got wifi you know."

"Oh, uh thanks corporal."

"Don't mention it." I went on to turn the air conditioner on.

Walter then sat down on the bed opposite of Korra and took his phone out. "What's the password sir."

"If my parents didn't change... darth geraldt, all caps."

He looked at me amused.

"Yeah yeah, hey I was still a kid when we had the wifi connected you know."

He typed it in and after several seconds, connected. "Its connected, thanks Darth Geraldt."

"Oh god you're going to tell everyone back at base arn't you?"

"Yep." He snickered before divulging on his phone. _Ugh, hopeless. I won't hear the end of it won't I?_

"Geraldt." Asami was holding one of my books. "What's this about?" She then showed it to me.

"Ah that one, its about uhh... the motion of bodies under the action of forces, or Dyamics. Its one of my classes in college."

"Huh, wait so you're an engineer?"

"Yeah, civil." I sat down on the chair in front of the desk and turned the computer on. "Graduated a few years ago."

"Wait so..." She turned to look at the bookshelf. "Most of these are textbooks?"

"Not most, but a lot of them."

She stared at the shelf for a minute without saying anything.

"Asami, hey" Korra tugged Asami's shirt from behind pulling her out of whatever she was thinking.

"Korra, do you know what this means." Asami sat down beside Korra showing her the book. "All these knowledge, it could help the reconstruction of Republic City immensely!" she bellowed

"Really? Wow, then that's great!."

"Arn't you interested?" Asami sensed the disinterest in Korra's voice.

"No, its not like that Asami, you're the brains you know? And I don't really like crunching numbers. Of course I want Republic City to get back to normal, I'm just not that into math ok?" Korra smiled and held both of Asami's hands. "I trust that you and Future Industries can make it work.

"Korra... thank you." Asami blushed.

"Uh sorry to interrupt girls but... ehh, I don't think I can give it to you just yet though." I said.

"What do you mean?" Asami seemed confused. _Hmm, how do I say it in a nice way that our government might not want to give away our technological advantage just yet._

"Well... uhh..." _Shit, think of something Geraldt._ "Hmm, they're pretty expensive though."

"Its alright I can buy it, name your price." She replied. _You dumb ass she's a fucking CEO, of course she's got money!_

"No its not like that, its... ugh." I bit my lips. "Okay I'll lend you a book for now, you go choose one."

"Really? Spirits, thank you!" She jumped out of the bed and hugged me. _Ehhh, a bit too close for comfort._

"Yeah, still needs to get translated though."

"I know, but its a start!" The then turned towards Korra. "Korra, this will help Republic City get back on its feet!"

Korra gave a wide smile. "I know Asami, I know."

* * *

"So wait, I understand the concept of the atom but... using it as a weapon? How? The outcome isn't really well explained here." _I was afraid it'll come to this._ Asami was sitting on my chair using my computer and once again on Wikipedia reading while Korra was still on my bed and was trying to bend water from a cup.

"Here I'll show you." I gently pushed the chair aside and went to youtube, then typed in 'nuclear bomb' clicking the first link. "Here, that's what happens when a nuclear bomb explodes."

Asami looked closely to the screen, so did Korra who suddenly became quite interested. It was black and white and as the narrator started, it was then I realized that the video was about the Little Boy bomb dropped into Hiroshima.

"Hey, can you please translate it for us?" Asami said as here eyes were fixed on the screen.

"Oh yeah sure."

The narrator started with a background of the war in the Pacific, and the cost of continuing it with the an invasion of Japan, Operation Downfall. He then started explaining nuclear fission in layman's terms, gave a quick glimpse at the Manhattan Project, the crew behind the Enola Gay, the B-29s and the firebombing campaign being raged, and finally the dropping of the bomb itself on the city.

Asami's eyes widened as she saw the actual colorized clip captured more than seventy years ago of the mushroom cloud rising up from the city. The narrator then continued on telling of the destruction of the city with a line making both Asami and Korra visibly cringe: 'Total destruction occurred one mile in radius from the hypocenter (point of impact) and another four square miles engulfed in flames with some thirty to forty thousand people being killed instantly by the blast and tens of thousands more by the resulting fires.'

The documentary ended by showing the effects of the blast, with pictures of charred bodies and bunt people in hospitals being studies by doctors, and the utter devastation of the city.

"The destruction, where does it end?" Asami murmured as I closed the browser with Korra looking down on the floor in deep thought.

"Well for one... nuclear weapons actually prevented a third world war." I said.

"What do you mean?"

"You see, with countries having nuclear bombs and missiles they are less likely to go to war with each other, like America and Russia during the cold war. Its called the cold war because they just stared at each other but continued building up their arsenal. The only reason they didn't go to full scale war is because of the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction in which if one dropped a nuclear bomb on the other, the other will repay in kind and dropped theirs until it escalates to a point where both countries bomb the hell out of each other, destroying themselves in the process with no winner."

The room fell into silence, then Asami spoke up. "So, it was the fear of annihilation that sopped such a war from happening?"

"Yep, fear is very very powerful you know."

"Yes I know..." She stared into the black screen of my computer before repeating. "I know..."


	7. 106: Backdoor Negotiations

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 : Backdoor Negotiations**

March 21 (D + 8)

"Time to wake up people, come on chip chop!" I banged on the door on the way in my room where the two girls were sleeping.

"Huh? What time is it?" Asami muttered under the blankets.

"Eight in the morning, we got a lot of things to be done today." I replied. "Breakfast's already on the table. Remember, the meeting's at nine." I tapped the door once more before exiting the room.

With the apartment having two rooms only and one already occupied by my parents, we decided that both Asami and Korra sleep in my room with whoever is going to sleep on the bed up to the girls which by the way was Asami. Me and Walter on the other hand slept on the couches of the living room, uncomfortable but far better than sleeping in a ditch.

I got to the dining table and sat down beside Walter who had just started eating. There was bread, peanut butter and jelly, and a few pieces of ham. We also had chocolate milk shakes and coffee prepared as drinks. Me and Walter prepared them as my parents slept since they're pretty old to get up that early.

Korra and Asami got out of the room several minutes later already changed from the night gowns my mom let them borrow to the clothes they bought yesterday. Sitting down, they started eating with the room falling in silence.

"Hey wanna watch some news?" Walter asked.

"Yeah sure go ahead, the remote for the tv is over there." I replied.

He stood up and went over to the small coffee table between the couches and the television and after finding the remote, turned the tv on and switch to the first news channel he saw... CNN.

"Damn, Lee Kwan Yew died earlier today."

"The Singaporean prime minister?"

"Yeah, 91 when he died, pneumonia I think."

"Who's that on the... what do you call it, the tv?" Korra took another bite n the piece of bread.

"That's Lee Kuan Yew, the first prime minister of a small country called Singapore, in fifty years he transformed the small island - country from a developing, poor nation into an economic powerhouse. Its like transforming a small fishing village into a giant vibrant city." I replied.

"I see, he's a great man then."

"Yeah."

"Hey can I ask you a question?" Asami asked.

"Yeah surer, that's why I'm here." I smiled.

"Okay, well this 'Mandarin' language of yours... its the same as the one we use. We in fact also call it the common language since everyone in our world knows it. I was wondering, how old is Mandarin?"

"Hmm, as far as I could remember off the top of my head, I think maybe three or four thousand years old, but the early forms of writing arn't the same as we have today. The writing slowly evolved from pictographs into what we can now see through thousands of years."

"Ah" Asami slowly nodded. "Ours, well... nobody really knows. When Korra saw through the life of Avatar Wan, the first avatar, they were already using the common language though she didn't saw any writings, and it was ten thousand years ago!"

"Yeah, with the weird lion turtles... was Korra sure she wasn't just dreaming?" I gulped down my cup of coffee.

"Hey I've told you before I can connect with my past lives, well could anyways." Korra frowned but after taking another sip at the chocolate milk, lighten up again.

"Yeah with the reincarnation things, we also have that belief here but it doesn't work, HERE. You guys got separate rules of the natural world huh."

The room fell into silence and a moment later Walter turned the tv off.

"Well." I said. "If you guys are done call me, I'm going to take a dump. Its going to take about ten minutes to walk over to the place so yeah, don't want to be late." I quickly got to the restroom and glanced at my watch. _Eight ten, still got a lot of time_.

* * *

"General Iroh, good to see you again!" Korra remarked as we entered a small room.

"Yes Korra, nice to see you too." Iroh replied.

General Braun, Iroh and Haoyung were already sitting on the chairs waiting. The room was supposed to be some kind of waiting room for us to wait for the VIPs to arrive. (Politicians.)

"So corporal, how did the first day go?" General Braun asked.

"Eh." I sat down on the chair beside him. "It was okay I guess."

"Ah." The general stroke his chin. "Well today's going to be a good day for you." _That sounds ominous._

"Uh huh... sir."

The door creaked open and a blonde haired woman entered, she was wearing a business suit and holding a clipboard. "General Braun the chancellor is ready to meet the guests." _Chancellor, really? Oh man all the way to the top huh._

"Alright fraulein." The general turned to me. "Well corporal, can you tell our guests about it?"

"Ah, yes sir." I stood up and walked over towards Iroh where they've been talking with each other, presumably about whatever they have so far experienced. "Excuse me, our chancellor is ready to meet you."

"Very well, thank you." Iroh stood up and walked over to general Braun. "Shall we go then?"

I quickly translated.

"Ah yes yes lets go." He went over to the woman and whispered something wherein the girl nodded. "Alright Geraldt see you later, you have another appointment to make."

I got confused. "Sir? I though I was going to translate for you."

"Nah, they've got someone in there to do that, you got other things to do now." He winked at me.

General Braun, Iroh, Korra, Asami, and Haoyung moved out and got into the room beside where we are leaving me, Walter, and the lady behind.

"Corporal, please wait here for a moment." She said, then getting out of the room.

"Well this is... fun. We'll need to wait for a whole day right?" Walter remarked.

"Yeah, you know how those meeting go, they'll talk for a whole day with nothing accomplished." I sat back down on one of the chairs. "Well, at least I've got some shitty games on my phone to pass the time."

"Yes sir. Shitty games it is then." Walter laughed as he sat down opposite of me and also took his phone out.

The lady came back over an hour later with a man in a suite carrying a small briefcase accompanying her. "Corporal Tchaikovsky, Private Ruderford."

"Yes?" The both of us stood up.

"Good morning gentlemen, I'm Captain Ernst from the Militärischer Abschirmdienst which, if you have been living under a rock, is our nation's military intelligence. I'm here to present to you your promotions from General Braun of the Twenty First Panzer Brigade." He took out two folders from his briefcase and handed them to us.

"Promotion? Really? What... what had we done?" I read through the papers still in disbelief.

"The general said that this would be a 'field promotion' for your exceptional service at the front lines... you know, the new one we have just opened." He grinned. _Does intelligence agents really fucking creepy?_

"So... I'm a sergeant now?"

"Yes you are sergeant, and your friend here is now Corporal Ruderford." He then packed up his briefcase. "Oh and by the way General Braun told me to tell you that there would be a 'capability demonstration' tomorrow with our guests as special observers. Meeting place at the lobby of this building at oh seven hundred hours."

"Demonstration of what?" I asked.

"Oh you know, the normal things... tanks... choppers... that sort of stuff." He saluted us with a smile. "Good day to you gentlemen." and walked out of the room.

Lady was still standing there as me and Walter looked at each other dumbfounded. After a few seconds of silence she spoke up. "Well boys you want something to drink? The meeting's going to last the whole day you know."

"Oh, uh yeah. Some hot chocolate seems nice... for the both of us... me and the 'sergeant'" Walter replied elbowing my arm.

* * *

"That took a whole day, damn am I tired Asami." Korra mumbled as they got into the room me and Walter were in. "Hey, so how are you guys?"

"We got promoted!" I said excitedly.

"Really? That's nice." She patted me on the back. "Good to see something good came out of it for you guys too."

"So, we going back to your house now?" Asami said. "I'm quite tired after that meeting."

"Yeah, that was what? Eight hours?"

"More or less, at least we had a lunch break though."

"Hmm, well lets go then." I got up from the chair and made my way to the door. "Where's Iroh and Haoyung?"

"They left already with your general, apparently they still have much to discuss. They also said something about a demonstration tomorrow?" Asami followed behind me.

"Yeah, its uh military demonstration you see."

"Ah, showing off your hardwares huh?" We made it to the elevator and she pressed the down button. "How much are you going to show off?"

"No idea, didn't tell me."

"Hmm okay."

"Hey I've got a question!" Korra remarked. "What's Star Wars? I've read that yesterday but didn't have the time to ask you about it. The explanation wasn't clear, it was like some kind of space thing?"

My bored face suddenly lit up as the elevator arrived. "Star Wars! Yes yes yes yes, space, all about space! Its a movie... just like your movers."

The elevator reached the ground floor and Korra practically jumped out. "So this star wars, is it any good?"

"Oh yes very much so, I have it at home so if you want after we get dinner we can watch it."

"Sounds good, Asami?"

"Yeah" She gave a tired smile. "I'd love that."

"Sir again, what the hell's happening?" Walter looked pissed off. _Oh right, god I always forget._

"Hey sorry, so we're going to watch star wars after dinner."

"Oh, nice."

So that pretty much summed up our activity for the night, no fancy night clubs, or movie theaters, just watching Star Wars at home in DVD.

We ate at McDonalds so the girls can experience 'fast food' and then proceeded to get back home. It was seven in the evening when we got back and after I fumbled a bit trying to find the discs, we started watching the movie using the tv on the living room.

I decided that they should watch the original trilogy first and see what they think about the story and above all the visuals since that would be their first taste of our films. With the opening sequence of A New Hope the sleepy eyes Asami was woken up by the visuals of a Star Destroyer chasing the Rebel ship. She was already inpressed with what she saw and so was Korra.

As the film went on they've got deeply engage even though they didn't understand a thing since there weren't Mandarin subtitles available.

"Spirits, that was awesome! Everything looks so... real!" Korra said as the credits started rolling. "Its like it really happened, those plane scenes were incredible."

"Yeah, it looked great. Don't think any of Varrick's movers can complete with that." Asami added.

"Remember." I got up from the couch and ejected the disc. "This film was made almost forty years ago, by today's standards the film isn't the best looking one." _I should let them watch a new one, but which one? Hmm... ah! Why not Interstellar? That shit looked insane._ "Hey I'm going to show you another one, this time from last year called Interstellar and its about space and black holes."

"Black holes?" Asami raised an eyebrow. _Right, black holes were theorized by Hawking in the seventies._

"Its kind of like a space drain... I'll just explain later, lets watch it first and see for you self."

"Okay" she shrugged.

So in goes the disc, the girls were quiet throughout the film and were awed when the scene with the black holes came to the screen, and that's when I explained it to them, its power and the basics of the Theory of Relativity by Einstein. Korra didn't get a lot of it especially the parts about space-time but Asami on the other hand, she was extremely interested and it looked like she was more interested in whatever I was rambling about than she was on the film. I continued to explain it with the help of Wikipedia up until the calculations for the physics which I couldn't since I haven't studied them but at the same time Asami's head was also full of new concepts and ideas which doesn't exist yet in their world, concepts of space travel and putting people on the moon. They have so much to learn, but then again would they put someone on their moon which they consider a spirit and makes their world work?

* * *

March 22 (D + 9)

"Good morning sergeant! How was the night?" General Braun pat my shoulders as we got out of the car.

"It was good sir, showed them Star Wars and Interstellar, the latter turned into a lecture of me explaining space-time to the girls" I replied.

"Well would you look at that, finally using your degree yes?" The general chuckled. "Come on, don't want our guests to wait so long."

We were transported to this place, some sort of a massive firing range, by a car as told by Captain Ernst yesterday, on the lobby of the building earlier today. As far as I know the car drove south for an hour by the autobahn and then got out at an exit somewhere. The girls were not very exited because they know we're just showing off but hey, orders are orders. We all wore jackets as the weather is still quite cold but the sky was clear, perfect for flying.;

"What is this place?" Korra asked.

"No idea." I replied. "Don't know what to expect either."

We followed the general to a small elevated wooden platform with seats and there sat Haoyung and Iroh with several of the Bundeswehr's top commanders with them. _Damn, so it this going to be one hell of a show?_ After a short introduction with the commandersGeneral Braun signaled me to sit with Korra and Asami, with the general to my right.

After we sat down the general whispered. "Sergeant, I want you to translate to the ladies what's happening later as the demonstration starts since we'll have an announcer."

"Uh, yes sir." I looked over the platform.

In front and below of us parked six Leopard 2 main battle tanks with about twenty four Marder APCs. There was also three PzH2000 self propelled artillery which had long range 155mm guns, and several more jeeps around the area with about a company of infantry. The area we were in was a vast plain with almost no trees for kilometers around us. Around a kilometer away to our front was a small area with paper targets both stationary and moving with bullseyes and tanks of which were old soviet era heaps of metal. _So they really are going all out huh._

After a quick explanation to Korra and Asami what the vehicles in front of us are, the demonstration kicked off with the announcer requesting us to stand for the singing of national anthem: Deutschlandlied. After the national anthem we all sat back down with the announcer stating the first part of the demonstration, artillery bombardment.

Each one of us was provided with binoculars and as such were able to see the the effects of the artillery on the target. It starts with the PzH2000s firing several shots in quick succession before slowing down to a more regulated tempo. Through the binoculars we saw the high explosive shells hit the target area and explode, ripping the paper to shreds.

"Very accurate." quipped Iroh. "Impressive... impressive."

The girls on the other hand were less interested and said nothing during the artillery demonstration. After a few minutes they stopped firing. The announcer then stated that armoured assault is next coupled with close air support, he then told us to look at the vehicles parked just in front of us. The Leopard 2s have formed up into wedge with the Marders within it, their engines started roaring and the announcer then directed us towards the sky behind us.

"Woah, how fast is that plane going?" Asami was looking up, seeing two Panavia Tornadoes streaking across the sky.

"Not sure." I replied.

In a matter of seconds the planes flew just a few hundred meters above us heading towards the target area and BOOM! _Well they're definitely above the speed of sound._ The platform shook as the shockwaves from the sonic boom hurdled across the plain.

"Spirits, what was that?!" Korra said, alarmed.

"Relax, that's just the sonic boom." I replied. "It happens when a plane, or anything for that matter, is moving faster than the speed of sound."

"Speed of sound?" Asami exclaimed. "Thats so fast."

The announcer's voice then boomed through the speakers telling that the Tornadoes are going in for a run. We all looked back to the target area with both the Tornadoes' silhouette flying over the target area.

The Tornadoes started the run by moving about two kilometers to the right of the target area and slowing down, then they formed up with the lead aircraft in front and its wingman close behind. Approximately a kilometer away and an altitude of just five hundred meters they dropped their two bombs and quickly pulled up, accelerating in the process. The bombs they dropped were slightly off target which meant they were unguided ones, as the smoke from the explosion rise up into the sky the Tornadoes leveled off and continued flying to the left.

The planes then turned around and started a shallow dive into the target area with the wingman increasing its distance from the lead plane tremendously. After a few seconds the lead plane started firing off its main cannon, strafing the soviet tanks and sparks came off its old rusty armour. The lead plane pulled out of the dive and in turn its wingman started strafing, few seconds later the wingman also pulled out and rejoined the lead aircraft. In formation they slowed down even more and decreased altitude until we could clearly see the markings on its fuselage, exiting the area they flew right over us wiggling their wings and after getting over the platform they accelerated and flew off into the distance.

Even though we weren't able to see the Tornadoes anymore we were still able to hear them for a couple of seconds more before the rumble of the tanks' engines are the only thing we could hear.

"Those planes of yours... their speed is unimaginable." Iroh said loudly. "How are you able to build such machines?"

General Braun glanced at me, then stared at the translator beside him. "I'm sorry but I can not say, it is a matter of national security." _Hmph, national security my ass._

"I see, well let us continue shall we?"

General Braun smiled as the announcer started talking once more, this time the armoured assault started. The tanks' engines roared as they started rolling out. The distinctive metallic noise the tracks make as it moves quickly reminded our guests of the similarities of our tanks to their own mecha-tanks (which I was able to see a picture of during the four days I was in the other side) except we have cannons and theirs don't. The announcer then told us to look at the remaining targets, moving ones in fact, and said the Leopard 2s would be demonstrating its accuracy by firing while moving.

And so it did.

Almost every shot the Leopard 2s fired hit the bullseye of their intended targets which was some one kilometer away, not very impressive in today's standard but for our visitors...

"The accuracy, spirits! Almost every shot hit the red dots on the target, and these tanks of yours were moving quite fast too." Iroh lowered his binoculars and looked at General Braun.

General Braun was grinning, I know that he knows the intended effects of this demonstration is starting to show up. He remained silent but was still grinning when the announcer spoke once more. The troops were now advancing fairly rapidly across the plain and about three fourths of the way the Leopards dispersed and the Marders came up through the gaps and the infantry started unloading. The infantry the took up positions beside the vehicles and started firing with the armour providing cover as the infantry slowly advanced,

"Its simulating an encounter with the enemy." I heard General Braun remark with a nod of acknowledgement from General Iroh.

A few minutes later they mounted up once more and the tanks went back into formation and drove right into the target area. Reaching their destination the infantry dismounted again and this time the armour stayed beside the infantry providing support as they moved up slowly. Out of the sound of explosions and machinegun fire I heard the ever so distinct sound of helicopters, Korra and Asami also heard it and we looked up to see four of them coming from the right side of the target area. Upon closer inspection I identified them as Eurocopter Tigers with a pair of rocket pod mounted on its hardpoints, they descended onto the target area firing its munitions just a hundred meters or so in front of the infantry. _Damn that's far too danger close for my taste._ The choppers then hovered opposite of the infantry to the surprise of our gests and started unloading its cannons, again on the soviet tanks.

"Its hovering... its hovering using its propellers! Why didn't I think of that!" Asami facepalmed "The wings on the Hummingbirds were so inefficient... I should have though of this."

"Hey don't get yourself too worked up." Korra smiled. "You'll find a way when we get home."

Asami just returned the smile before looking back through the binoculars. _She'll be surprised when she finds out how hard it is to actually make a helicopter stay upright and not spin out of control._

The helicopters now out of ammunition flew towards us and one of them stopped just fifty meters in front of the platform, the pilot waved his hands through the cockpit then went on with the rest of the flight. _Was that shit scripted? That has to be, there's no way any of them would do that in their right mind._ I glanced at General Braun and he had the largest smile on his face I've ever saw. _Yep, scripted._ I then looked over to Korra and Asami who were very very impressed with the helicopter and the amount of control the pilot have over the vehicle.

"The controls needs to be so precise for that pilot to do that move." Asami looked over my shoulders. "General Iroh..."

"Wait Asami." He interrupted. "Its not over yet." He pointed at the firing range.

Asami went back to her binoculars and sure enough the infantry was still moving up with the armour. They unfurled the German Flag and one of them rushed up a small mound, planted the flag, and fired a flare onto the sky.

"And that's it." General Braun stood up, obviously impressed with the demonstration. "I greatly appreciate that you have all came here for this demonstration."

General Iroh stood up and they shook each other's hands.

"Very well done General Braun, I'm most impressed. I'm curious though, how many men does your army field?"

"How many men?" General Braun Stroke his chin. "Hmm, its... just a little over a quarter of a million."

"Two hundred and fifty thousand, I see." Iroh's head bobbed. "A good sized army in my opinion."

"I've read that they had called up millions of men to serve before." The generals we surprised to see Asami interjecting. "It was seventy years ago during the World War Two, your country fielded millions of men, what's stoppimg you from doing the same?" _Wow she really did read a lot._

General Braun chuckled. "Miss Sato times change, remember that it was over seventy years ago. Besides, having millions of men under arms requires the whole country's effort to be devoted to it. It is just yoo expemsive to keep that number during peacetime." He looked over to Iroh. "I think it is the same for yours?"

"Yes it is, but we don't have this conscription of yours. We find it distasteful to force people to serve for their government, kind of beats the idea of democracy." _You have no idea how much men America conscripted during the war._ He continued. "The Earth Republic... or rather its former self, the Earth Kingdom did try to force people into their army. They did it with airbenders that were popping up within its borders but it ended badly, with the airbenders escaping after Korra here rescued them." Another pause. "Those people were Earth Kingdom citizens yet they were treated horribly by their government so they escaped. How did YOU prevent that?"

By then the commanders had already left leaving the four guests, me, Walter, General Braun and his translator behind. I was wondering why Haoyung wasn't asking anything but then I realized that he was just absorbing as much information in, information he would needs to report to their president.

"Nationalism." General Braun's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. "Nationalism is a very very powerful notion, do you have it there? " he raised an eyebrow.

Iroh looked out towards the field and sighed. "We did, the fire nation used it to great effect during the Hundred Years War, they mobilized their citizens and taught them they were better than everyone else." He formed his hands into a fist before sighing again. "That's what happens when the government has too much power, feeding lies to its people... my people. They even cheered when the news of the air nomads being wiped out reached home."

General Braun put his hands on Iroh's shoulders. "Hey, our worlds have a lot more in common that we might have initially thought." He signaled the rest of us to follow them. "Come, lets get back, all of you need rest. There would be another meeting tomorrow, the last one before you can get back home." He removed his hands and saluted Iroh.

General Iroh returned the salute with Korra and Asami looking at each other, nodding.

* * *

"It looks like Japan is a lot more like the Fire Nation than these Nat-si of yours." Asami got up from my computer and sat down on the bed. "Still, both of them had done far more terrible things than the Fire Nation."

"Actually. I remember reading than the previous avatar... Aang wasn't it? He stopped the Fire Lord from burning your whole world down and killing everyone. Ours only tried to kill select groups of people not entire continents." I pointed it out sitting comfortably on my chair beside the bookshelf.

"Hmm, yes you got a point."

We got back hone after General Braun took us to lunch in a fancy restaurant, obviously trying to impress our guests. I didn't mind though since I wasn't the one paying. We got back to my apartment around one in the afternoon and Asami immediately got to my computer and started reading more, Korra on the other hand settled down on the living room and tried to meditate, something she haven't done yet in this world. Walter... he got bored and fed up since he couldn't understand a thing so he requested a leave to visit his family on the other side of the city. I granted it and gave him a hundred Euros to cover the expenses on the condition he shuts the hell up and returns by midnight.

"Hey Asami I'd like to show you something." I went to the computer and opened up Steam. "Its called video games."

She got up from the bed and came close to me. "Video games? Like games like the ones on boards?"

"Board games, yes there are. But the are also other genres kike first person shooters, strategy, simulation, and many others." Steam loaded up and I opened my library. "Here I have thirty games from military simulation to strategy games."

"Huh, what's this one?" She pointed at Red Orchestra 2.

"Its a first person shooter, a bit realistic but still quite arcadey."

She looked confused over the terms. _Of course she is you dumb_ _ass, show not tell._ I loaded the game up amd got into a single-player match against bots, playing as the Germans. With the screen loaded up she was surprised to see the gun and the hud appearing on screen. I described to her how the game works, how points are earned, and finally the gameplay itself. I was waiting for her to get shocked on seeing we shoot other people to have fun but it seemed like she's already used to it.

"What do you think?" I asked as the scores came up at the end of the round.

"That does look fun, fast and exciting." _Fast and exciting? Oh you have not seen twitch shooters like Call of Duty yet._

"You wanna try some?"

"Yeah sure, why not."

She started playing as I guide her on the controls, an hour later she's already winning matches on medium difficulty. _Wow she's a fast learner._

After another match she removed the headset and put it aside. "Its still bothering me though, this game is based on history, that battle where hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, and you people are okay with it?"

"Yeah." I exited the match and got back to the main menu. "It was seventy years, we have hundreds of films about it and dozens of games more. Humans are instinctively attracted to explosions and violence, that's why movies and games today are getting more and more realistic. People want to experience war short of actually going to war." I sat back down on the bed. "I remembered you showing me your... movers, and it was purely for propaganda, to make your country enter the war. Ours are the same but today its mostly for entertainment, there are still propaganda ones but its a lot less."

"Ah" was her only reply.

There was a knock on the door and I turned my head to see Korra.

"Hey, watcha doing?" She got in and sat beside me.

"He's showing me their video games." Asami replied.

"Huh... can I try?" Korra looked at me.

"Uh, okay."

Korra replaced Asami on the chair and as the match was loading Asami spoke.

"So Korra, how was the meditation."

"Not very good." She replied. "I really can't seem to get any connection here... in this world. I could feel some but its very weak... oh its done loading." She pointed at the monitor as the deployment screen came up.

"Huh, so do you really think there arn't any spirits here?"

"Maybe, but then again their world is larger than ours so there might be some somewhere out there, but there definitely are none anywhere close." Her attention got back to the monitor as the round started. "So, how do I play?"

I taught her like I taught Asami and Korra was a far quicker learner than Asami, she was already wrecking the bots forty minutes in.

"Wohoo! Fifty two kills! Hey Asami how many did you get."

She sighed with a smile. "Twenty five oh mighty avatar."

"Ha! This is so much fun! Do you have a higher difficulty." She asked me.

"In fact we do, ita the hardest one."

"Oh really? What's it called then." She said with a smug face.

I grinned "Multiplayer."

This time she was the one getting wrecked, running out in the open to get sniped or not checking the map and getting gunned down my machinegunners in corners that other players on her team pointe out. Her first multiplayer match ended with her just getting three kills to over thirty deaths. _Good thing the scoreboard doesn't show deaths, that'll be emba_ _r_ _rassing._

"I think that's enough games for today." She took off the headset and placed it on the table. "The other players are people too right?"

"Yes, yes they are."

"They're really good." She got up and sat beside Asami who was cheering her throughout the match. "What do you think?"

"I think you're getting a little too engrossed in it." she ran her hands through Korra's hair. "Wanna watch some more of those movies?"

"Yeah!"

* * *

March 23 (D + 10)

Another day another meeting, like the first one me and Walter sat in the waiting room for the whole day doing nothing, just waiting for them to finish their meeting. Luckily this time the lady gave us several magazines and newspapers to pass the time. The general also told us to wear our service uniforms for unknown reasons, maybe to look good for the last day? I'm not sure.

It was six in the evening when the meeting finally ended, I was already asleep on the chair by that time and Walter called me up when they entered the room.

"Hello sergeant, that doesn't look very comfortable sleeping on that seat."

"No shit." I got up and to my horror I realized it was General Braun who spoke. "Oh shit... Sir I'm sorry, I though you were someone else."

He chuckled. "Its alright sergeant, I understand that you're still a little cranky after just waking up." he laughed some more. "At ease sergeant, at ease."

"Uh huh, yes sir. Thank you sir."

The general came forward. "We'll be leaving for the Bundestag, the chancellor's got an announcement for the world later at eight."

"Sir? Its the time?"

"Yes sergeant it is, now come on we don't want to be late. They have left first since they're going to be introduced to other... politicians." he said the word with distaste. "The announcement would be broadcasted all over the world, wouldn't want to miss it." He turned around waving for us to follow him. "Oh, and it'll also be at that place you'll get your chevrons on your uniforms, that's why I asked the both of you to wear them today." _Oh so that's why_.

We followed him to his car and it drove onto the Bundestag with police escort. _Huh, so they're going high visibility now._ We entered the Reichstag from the front entrance, security was extremely heavy... possibly even heavier than when the parliament convene. The press were all over the place and when they saw the three of us getting up the stairs a shower of light greeted us.

"Sir, what the hell did we say to them for them to come in full force?" I asked the general.

"Oh... well." He grinned. "They announce that we discovered something... something that WILL change the world." _That's so vague, can't belive it worked._

I turned my head around to look at the dozens of news vans before getting into the building. _Wow, this is the first time I'm entering on official business... Awesome!_ He headed to the board room, this is where parliament convenes, it was very big with hundreds of seats all facing a small podium with a massive eagle, the Bundesadler, behind it and several flags on both sides. We settled down onto the seats behind the podium, we sat there for at least thirty minutes before the guests arrived with the chancellor, by then the seats opposite of the podium were pack with journalists. _Journalists? What? What the hell, are they really going all out?_ Moments later the chancellor stepped onto the podium with the guests taking their seats beside me, journalists' laptops were open and dozens of cameras were rolling. The chancellor started:

"Ten days ago on the thirteenth of March, two thousand and fifteen, Sergeant Geraldt Tchaikovsky on a routine patrol uncovered a cave deep within the Hürtgen forest." _Routine patrol... ha!_ "Within it he discovered a portal... a portal to a parallel universe." _Parallel universe? Are you sure its a parallel universe or is that the closest thing you can say?_ "Within it lies a whole new world, a world of which people have powers to manipulate classical elements and the avatar, their spiritual leader is here with us today. Avatar Korra..."


	8. 107: Outpost Guderian

**NOTES:**

 **Sorry for the lack of updates the past two weeks, Fallout 4 happened.**

* * *

 **BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 7: Outpost Guderian**

March 31 (D + 18)

Its weird getting thrown back into the other world immediately after the big reveal. General Braun temporarily reassigned me to an engineer battalion to oversee the construction of an outpost at the foot of the mountain though it looked more like an forward operating base than a simple outpost. The small and steep steps from the cave going down the mountain was being replaced by a two way road with a lane each at a safe degree of inclination, enough for trucks anyways. Heavy equipment on work twenty four hours a day with help from the earthbenders of Future Industries. Back on our side an area one kilometer in radius around the cave was fenced off to the public and transformed into a military base with the trees within it all getting cut down and being replaced by warehouses and several concrete buildings much to the dismay of environmentalists.

In the week since the big reveal the Chancellor had gone through dozens of meetings with other world leaders, feeding them tiny bits and pieces of information about the other world, enough to gain leverage for trade deals and such. She had already gotten some sort of preliminary deal with the other countries of the European Union but it was subject to change. News about our world also spread like wildfire on the other side with newspapers plastered with our faces, specifically **MY** face since I was the one who lead the first incursion from our world to theirs, and I was also the one doing all the talking with the local construction workers and some of the press. It was in every paper, every radio show, hell there were even billboards about us with our backhoes and bulldozers (not that they don't have them).

It was one hell of a week for me, trying to get the battalion together and then coordinating with the earthbenders was not an easy task and further hammering in the difficulty was the language barrier between them and the lack of trust. Even so we were ahead of schedule, way way ahead of schedule. The first three days of the operation, which started the day after the reveal, was for the earthbenders to level the side of the mountain enough for our heavy equipment to be of use, instead they practically built the damned road themselves. Save for the concrete surface they "bended" it to the correct inclination, width, and even the turn radii. It threw the whole operation off because we didn't even need the backhoes, we need instead were the concrete mixers and all the other good stuff for the road. It took us just four more days to finish the road and afterwards construction on the outpost began with clearing the small forest that existed on the base of the mountain. This wasn't one of those "spiritual" forest Korra talked about so it was quite easy for it to go through the Republic City bureaucracy.

It was named 'Outpost Guderian' in honor of Heinz Wilhelm Guderian, he was the pioneer of motorized tactics in the Wehrmacht before the second world was and was more or less responsible for the concept of Blitzkrieg. There were disagreements within the brass to the name since he was technically a Nazi general but his reputation outweighed the negatives.

One more thing established between the two worlds was trade, albeit quite shitty one for now. The outpost was supposed to be the gateway of trade between the two worlds, where products from their side get processed before coming to our world while the base on our side of the cave called the Hürtgenwald Forward Operating Base was responsible for processing the products from our side before going to the other.

There had not been an official name on the worlds, still people had started calling each other names like other worlders and aliens. Both the planets was practically the same: same size, same inclination, same distance from the sun, same form of solar system (though they have two more planets than ours), twenty four hours a day, and with an atmospheric composition of having less carbon dioxide than us. The only thing different, the only BIG difference is that the sun rises in the west and sets in the east... their planet spins the opposite direction from ours.

Requests in the thousands from scientists, journalists, and diplomats from all over our world to go to the other side was flooding the newly created wing of the Federal Foreign Office specifically for the other world, but all requests were denied because _"The area concerned is not stable enough to ensure the safety of any traveler who ventures there, we shall inform you when it is safe enough and until then we will not accept any request. Thank you."_ 'Not stable enough', yeah right I call bullshit.

"Sir, there's someone here to see you."

"Huh?" I looked up from my desk in the tent at the construction site of Outpost Guderian to see the sentry for my tent standing in front of me. "Oh uh, who is it?" I rubbed the back of my neck. _Okay enough internal monologues, time to work._

"Its Mr. Bao, sir." _Oh god damned it what is it again?_

I sighed. "Fine let him in."

The private saluted and got out of the tent, I took a sip of my orange juice just as Mr. Bao got in looking angry as always. _Ugh lets get on with it then._

"Sergeant how many times do I have to tell you I'm in charge of my men, not you."

"Oh for fuck's sake Bao how long had you been in the construction business, you know how contracts work!" _FUCK!_ I put down my cup on the table and leaned forward.

"I know how it works and our contract specifically stated that we work TOGETHER, not under your government." _Oh fucking hell who the fuck signed it without proofreading anyway?!_

"Gah!" I threw up my arms before leaning back on the chair and putting both my hands behind my head. "This project it under the Bundeswehr and until I get anything from the higher ups we're sticking to our plan and OUR plan only."

He looked more frustrated than I've ever seen him. "Fine, you know what I'm going to put this in my report to Ms. Sato."

"Go on then!" I shouted. "We've got thousands of other construction companies back in our world that's itching for a chance to get here!"

His frown worsen. "That's it, I'm done for today. Good day to you." He turned around and walked out. "Kraut." I heard him mutter.

"Oh yeah? Well you... you... you greasy old fuck." I muttered back which fell on deaf ears, thankfully.

Mr. Bao is quite old, maybe in his seventies yet is still full of fire. He was the one Future Industries assigned to be their lead engineer in the project and was always pestering me of ordering his workers to do a job they weren't initially assigned for but were equally capable of. He was one of those 'by the books' person which obeyed the contract and blueprints to the last letter. The Bundeswehr's lead engineer was not me, but was a civilian contractor, he does rounds on the site and talk to the workers of both worlds but his main task was to design and see the completion of the outpost. I on the other hand was the one trying to get the workers from both worlds to work with each other and not against.

I was surprised on how quickly "Kraut" became the term they use to refer to us and 'Nips' was the one we use to refer to them (since they looked East Asian). _Hey look on the bright side, in just over a week we already had a cultural exchange!_

I silently laughed at the thought before sighing heavily. _Well, time to see how the base is going_. I cleaned my table and put the papers back into the briefcase, I got up, straightened my uniform, and put on my cap before getting out.

The whole site was teeming with workers and heavy equipment with earthbenders digging holes of where the foundation of the buildings would be and engineers on our side building columns out of it. Everything looked alive, even the concrete that's being poured.

"Hey sergeant!"

I turned around to see Herman walk towards me with his rifled slung on his shoulder, my old squad was assigned guard duty 'coincidentally' on the site and was under another sergeant, Sergeant Wickman.

"Hey Steinmeier! How's guard duty treating you?" I laughed as we high-fived.

"Eh, kinda boring but hey food's good."

"Anything interesting happened so far?"

"Well there had been some civies who came up too close to the perimeter fence, but a few shouts and gestures usually warded them off. Quite a curious folk they are."

"Yeah, well we're building a base in their lands."

"Like the Americans in Afghanistan."

"Uh... no." I shook my head. _Hopefully it'll never be the same._ "Hey so you wanna tell me about something or... well..." I shrugged. "I've still got inspections."

"Oh right there is something though." He looked around and after being satisfied no one was listening he leaned in close to my ears and whispered. "Last night while I was on patrol I saw one guy probing the fence..."

"Probing? What?" I interrupted. "Civie?"

"No, not by the looks of it. He was pretty close to the fence and well, was in the open so I was able to have a good look of him through my NVs. He's got some sort of body suit, not sure of the color though since, well everything's green but he's also got a mast, its like a leather ski mask of some sort with a weird red mark on the forehead and like a metal thing around his head, kinda like a headband, and the eye slits have goggles. I don't know what those goggles were, NV or just normal ones but... I don't know, it looked like it was glowing? Damn that guy was fast, the moment he realized I saw him he jumped back into the bushes and... well I lost him."

"Hmm." I stoked my clean shaven chin. "You got anymore on his clothes?"

"Well..." He closed his eyes, trying to remember.

"He's got a scarf around his neck and got knee-high boots."

"Huh, alright. Wait weren't the searchlights supposed to be on at all times?" I asked looking him in the eye.

"Yeah they WERE, but the searchlight on that part of the fence had a busted terminal just a few minutes prior so it had to be fixed. That's why I had the NVs on when I started my patrol."

"Ah, okay, I'll file a report about it then. In the mean time just keep an eye out for more of these incidents." I tapped him on his shoulders. "Well good luck private."

"Yes sir, thank you sir." He saluted me before turning around and walked back where he came from. _Strange... civilian probing the fence, no they can't be a civie if they're_ _ **probing**_ _the fence. I don't like the sound of this._

I took a walk around the base checking if the constructions are up to schedule and taking down complaints and grievances from workers on both worlds. (Thankfully there weren't a lot.) I ended the round late in the afternoon, tired but not exhausted. I got back to my tent as the sun sets behind the mountains to the east, I sat down and brought my papers out once more to start filing the reports for the day.

"Excuse me sir, Miss Sato is here to see you." The sentry poked his head into the tent.

"Ah, well let her in then."

He nodded and got his head out of the tent. _This is not going to be pleasant._

Asami got into the tent and smiled when she saw me. "Hi Geraldt, how are you?"

"I'm well ma'am." I replied standing up, pointing to a plastic chair in front of the desk. "Please, take a seat."

"Thanks."

I sat down after she sat down. She wore her red Future Industries clothes (the one she normally wears) and presented me a folder with a bunch of papers in it.

"This is so far all the complaints Bao had of you." She waved the folder around. "Seven reports in as many days, it looks like you two don't really like each other."

"Yeah well the thing is ma'am." I scratch the back of my head. "He kept wanting to change the plans, like moving the building or expanding the perimeter fence. I already told him that our plan is the one being followed and he kept on saying that we're supposed to work together and not under us."

"So are you working together?" She shot me a glare catching me off guard.

"Well... yeah." I stammered. "We had been, since day one of the construction."

"Hmm. I'll see to it then, in the mean time just... just try to be calm with him. I know he's frustrating most of the time but he's the best Future Industries can offer."

"I understand ma'am."

"Okay." She nodded. "Now that's out of the way there's something else I want to talk to you about." There was a long pause. "Promise me you won't tell anyone about it."

"Uh, sure ma'am." there was hesitation when I said it but Asami didn't seem to notice somehow.

"Okay, remember Korra's necklace?" She got a folded piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to me. "Mako found out the employers of the triad you attacked were equalists."

"Equalists?" I opened the piece of paper to reveal a colorized photo of someone in a gray overall and... and it practically matched the description Herman gave me of the person probing the fence earlier that day. "Wait wait hang on, so this is what an actual equalist looks like?"

"Yes, that's their uniform. Mako had reasons to believe that they might try and do dome funny things to this site."

"Huh, never actually seen a picture. They were the ones that want to remove bending right?"

She nodded. _Huh, so those were history books I was reading not fiction. That fucking clerk at the bookstore._

"Well what do you want me to do?"

"Spread it among your guard to be on the lookout for them." The pointed at the paper. "And don't trust anything the equalists say if they tried to."

"Okay, anything else."

"Just don't tell them about the necklace. That's all." She stood up and I immediately followed. "Good day to you sergeant." She held her hands out and we shook hands.

"Good day to you too Ms. Sato."

She gave a faint smile before getting out of the tent. I sat back down with the gears in my head turning. _Paramilitary organization huh, well this just made my job a lot more fun. Ugh._

* * *

April 2 ( D + 20 )

0600H

The German flag flew for the first time in the land of the benders and as the workers formed up for the flag ceremony the sun lazily rose from the west, out to the sea.

The guards on patrol were informed about the equalists but so far in the three days since there weren't any reports of any lurking outside the base. _That means either they've stopped, or we just failed to locate them._ It had so far been making me paranoid of having infiltrators steal sensitive plans so I increased the guards and their rotation times, much to their dismay.

After the flag ceremony the workers dispersed and went on to their assigned stations to begin their tasks for the day, I got back into my tent and got the blueprint out with Mr. Bao updating me on the progress so far.

"So far everything's going according to schedule sergeant and I don't think you need to worry too much about the equalists, they're operating more like triads now and not the revolutionary... paramilitary organization they were five years ago." Bao said as he adjusted himself on the seat.

"I understand Mr. Bao but we cannot let our guard down, we have plenty of experience in my world how insurgencies work and just killing off their leading isn't going to stop them, sooner or later they would have a new boss. Whether that guy is up to the task or not the problem is that they still exists, and they're uncomfortably close to this base." I replied still looking over the blueprint, trying to find a weak spot for the equalists to enter. _Well so far the security's top notch, vet having something planned and making it happen isn't always easy._

"Oh please sergeant." He waved me off dismissively "Even if the equalists got back on foot Avatar Korra would just smash then up again and the ones remaining would be hunted down by the police and the United Forces.."

"Okay, so you have any ideas what they want this time Mr. Bao?"

"I would assume its the same old 'equality' shit they've done before, but I don't think they'll be able to do that without Amon's bending removal powers."

"I see."

"Well, I've still got work to do sergeant. Nice to have a conversation about other things than work." He stood up and extended his hands.

"Yeah, nice not arguing for one." I also stood up and shook his hands.

He smiled before turning around and getting out of the tent. _Back to work I guess._ I sat back down and stared at the blueprints. _Yeah I should transfer this to a laptop so if it was actually stolen they would still have to deal with the laptop's security._

The base is rectangularly shaped 200m X 100m with the long side running a north-south direction, it was built on the dirt road that ran between the foot of the mountain and the city, the one my squad used to get to the city when we initially set foot onto this world. A single road cuts through the base which connects to the dirt road, also on a north-south direction but stops halfway in. The front half of the base would be the 'exchange' station where most of the trading will happen, the rear half of the base would be where the army and security contractors have their barracks and a motor pool. The rear area is also going to have a small clinic and the most important thing in modern society: WIFI. Lastly, another road emerges from the rear which connects to the road directly from the cave.

So far most of the foundations of the building were done so the next step would be to construct the buildings themselves. With the help of the earthbenders the estimated completion date of the outpost was the end of the month. _Its really nice having earthbenders help, it would've took us over two months to get everything set up on our own._

* * *

April 11 (D + 29)

It was nine in the morning, I was lazily doing paperwork in my office on the second floor of the newly finished five story HQ building when a private on radio duty burst into the room, surprising me.

"Sir! Sir!" He was panting heavily which seems strange since the radio room was just above mine. "The watchtower reported in that there are several dozen civilians moving down the road heading towards us."

"What? Protesters?"

"Unknown sir." _God damned it, this is why we should've put up roadblocks out there! So that they couldn't just walk up right to the bloody base itself._

"Fine." I got up and set aside the papers, put my cap and my belt on, and went out the office with the private following suit. "Get Sergeant Wickman on the radio, I want his squad to be on standby to be deployed outside the base, and radio Hürtgenwald FOB and tell them the situation we're in."

"Yes sir." The private saluted me and off he went back to the radio room. _Oh my god, we're just two weeks in and there are already protesters outside the gate._

I made my way to the balcony of the building which was on the roof and with one hand holding the radio and the other on the binoculars looking out towards the main gate, Sergeant Wickman's voice cracked through the radio.

"Sergeant, what's our engagement protocols if they get too close to the base?"

"Just try stopping them from getting closer and get some tear gas grenades if things go bad, but absolutely NO shooting. And don't forget to bring a translator with you so we'll know what the hell they want."

"Alright sergeant."

"Good, Sergeant Tchaikovsky out." I hooked the radio back to my belt and continue looking through my binoculars. _Several dozen of them and are slowly walking towards the gate, they're not shouting or chanting anything, hmm... are they even actually protesters?_

"Sir, Hürtgenwald FOB is on the line. They're going to try sending us some riot police from the police departments close to Hürtgenwald." The runner went up to me, telling me of the news.

"Good, good. Tell them to hurry up before shit happens."

At that moment another runner came up. "Sir, Mr. Bao is calling for you. He's on the ground floor, he says his earthbenders can help with putting up earthen barricades."

"Okay, lead me to him." I dismissed the first runner as I followed the second down the building.

Bao was waiting for me just outside of the building, smoking and looking calm. As I approached him inhaled some more before throwing his cigarette away and spoke, sarcastically. "Well now, it looks like your fans want your autograph."

I ignored the comment and went straight to the point. "You said your earthbenders can help stop the civilians?"

"Yeah they could, wanna use them?"

"Why not?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I'm not really into those political stuff." He took another cigarette from his pocket and started puffing.

"So, how many can you send? The squad out there isn't really going to stop dozens of people is they really mean to get to the base." _Unless if the squad shoot them of course._

"Forty." He interjected. "Forty two people to be exact, but they don't look like protesters though."

"Yeah I noticed."

My radio suddenly rang and I could hear the voice of Sergeant Wickman. "Sergeant Tchaikovsky, our translator said they... they want... what?" There were muffled voices on the radio which I wasn't able to discern who it belong to, Sergeant Wickman replied to the voice after it talked for several seconds. "Okay okay." there was another pause. "Sergeant Tchaikovsky, the civilians want to get away from, umm... the Agni Kai triad?" He didn't sound sure.

"What? Why?" I replied with Bao listening intently.

"They heard what you did, well pretty much everyone knows what you and your men did when you initially came here. You know, killing the triads in the forest and running through the spirit wilds stuff."

"Uhh." I glanced at Bao and he was looking at me nonchalantly. I bit my lips and fiddled with the radio for a moment before replying "I'm going out there to clear things up, just contain them until I get there Wickman."

"Okay Tchaikovsky, Wickman out."

I put the radio back onto my belt and called the runner who followed me down. "Private, get into contact with Hürtgenwald and ask them what I should do to civies trying to seek refuge."

"On it sir." The runner quickly disappeared back into the building leaving us in the dust.

 _Okay stay calm, this is only going to be some of those PR stuff I'll need to get through. No fighting, just talking._ It was then when I heard Bao chuckling in which I gave him a puzzled look.

He continued chuckling. "Oh I'll be fun seeing you army guys deal with stuff like this." _Yeah, fun... yay._

I ignored him and started jogging towards the main gate a hundred and twenty meters away. Even before I got out of the outpost I could already see dozens of people about fifty meters outside the base being stopped by a line of nine men from Wickman's squad in which thankfully the civilians didn't try to rush the squad because if they did, the outcome would be very very bad.

As Sergeant Wickman saw me jogging down the road he hailed at me and signaled me to move even quicker which I complied. The first thing he asked was. "What the fuck are we going to do with them?"

Which I replied "I don't know... I'll talk to them I guess." I shrugged and then proceeded towards what looks like the leader of the civilians, he looked in his mid-thirties and was fairly healthy. They all looked like the definition of poor: somewhat ragged clothes, a bit dirty, and they were holding bags which contains what looks like their belongings.

"Please, help us sir!" The leader pleaded. "The Agni Kai, they're after us." He came forwards trying to hold my hands.

"Whoa whoa, calm down. Lets do this slowly now, okay so why exactly are the Agni Kai after you?" I pushed him back lightly.

A glimmer of hope emerged from the leader's face. "They... wanted us to be cannon fodder in an upcoming takeover of an area against the Triple Threats." He looks gone back to being grim and desperate. "They wanted us to distract the Triple Threats while the _proper_ Agni Kais went in for the kill." He said the word with distaste.

"Wait, so you're all part of the triad?"

"Yes we were, but... in reality they forced us to. After the Battle of Republic City so many people are unemployed and so many businesses destroyed, most of us in our area which was located in the poorer parts of the city lost their jobs and so became desperate. The Agni Kais came in and pretty much took over the neighborhood and promised anyone who joined them would get paid and be given food but... but they were just using us as expendables, thrown away after a fight." He looked back onto his group which I just realized then also contained children. "We escaped with our families without _them_ knowing because if they did they'll just kill us all."

"Okay, but why didn't you go for the police, why us."

"Are you kidding." He said almost with a laugh. "The police is so incompetent, sure Lin Beifong is the chief and she's trying really hard but she can't control the actions of every single officer especially the ones so far from the Police Headquarters where Lin's at. A lot of them in the areas around us are corrupt beyond belief, some of them are even part of the triads themselves. The moment we went to the police station they'll alert the triads and in turn the triads will hunt us down and kill us all for betraying them." _What, really? They're police is that bad? So much for Korra and Asami telling me Lin's got everything under control._

"Its that bad huh..." I muttered

"Yes it is which is why we came here, to you and your people, to help us."

I began weighing the options silently. _On one hand if I let them in the army's going to fucking kill me, on the other hand if I didn't..._

"Sergeant Tchaikovsky,come in Sergeant Tchaikovsky." The voice from my radio knocked me out of my thoughts and it also startled the leader of the civilians.

"Uh Tchaikovsky here, what is it?"

"Sir, Hürtgenwald requests more information about the civilians."

"Ah, okay." I more or less repeated the story the leader told me and after a few minutes of waiting the voice in the radio replied.

"Sir, Hürtgenwald says to let them in but tell them its only temporary. They also said that the civilians would be given encampment outside the outpost, but the tents and other stuff would be provided by us."

"How about security?" I asked. "My men are already stretched guarding the outpost itself."

"Hürtgenwald said they'll send more men... actually uh, they're going to create another department to take care of the camp." _Phew, less hassle for me then._

"Good anything else?"

"Negative sir."

"Roger, Tchaikovsky out." The leader looked at me nervously as I returned the radio to my belt, I grinned giving him the good news.

He practically leapt with joy and started hugging me. _Okay, too close for comfort._ I once again lightly pushed him away. "Okay, you guys stay put for a while while I sort things out."

"Yes yes! Thank you! Thank you!"

* * *

April 18 (D + 36)

After the 'refugee incident' as they call it I was demoted from being in charge of the whole operation of the outpost to just the construction one. _Well, less responsibilities for me then_. It quickly garnered media attention from both worlds even though there was a media blackout in ours. And through the whispers and rumors coming out of the new 'refugee camp' that was created just west of the outpost the Republic City Police Department (RCPD) was furious that they (the refugees) called the department incompetent and corrupt. _Well, that means some of the earthbenders heard our conversation then and spread it_. At least Lin Beifong came out and issued something like a public apology and promised too help the citizens more and decrease the corruption in their ranks.

Almost two more weeks passed and it was April 30 when the outpost was finally declared complete and the front gates were opened for trade. There was a big ceremony held with President Raiko, Korra, the German foreign minister and several other important people in attendance (like most political bullshit) and it was then when the first actual protest was held (as always, accompanying political bullshit) with a few hundred demonstrators (nationalists by the looks of it) being held back by the RCPD with help from tear gas and water cannons from our world.

The protesters were demanding equal trade opportunities and that the outpost be removed. They're actually quite right on that we're setting up a base on THEIR lands and having a trade agreement not in their favour, but orders are orders and there was nothing I could really do.

After the completion of the base I was reassigned back to my old unit and was promoted to Staff Sergeant for 'exemplary service in the field', whatever that was supposed to mean.

In the end the outpost was quite a success, just a day after the grand opening the dirt road was already packed with traders and merchants all over the city and there were rumors that the army's already going to expand the outpost because of the sheer number of trading happening. Hopefully it won't devolve into something like Afghanistan or become basis of argument between Germany and pretty much everyone else in both worlds because if it did, it'll lead to catastrophic consequences.


	9. 108: Clash of Cultures

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Clash of Cultures**

May, 2015

Finally its almost summer, no longer do I need to cower in my tent because of the cold and because I have a higher heat tolerance than most Europeans, I wouldn't be that susceptible to heat strokes while on duty.

Within a month of the outpost becoming operational, the trade area in front of it had already been drastically expanded. With an original area of 100m X 100m, it bubbled out forward and sideways swallowing up more of the now paved road to Republic City, and the areas around it coming off to about 200m X 220m. By then the trade area was now unfenced and looked like a small boom town of the old west with thousands of people coming in and out to do trade with us. Only the rear part of the outpost, the actual outpost (with barracks and motor pool) was fenced off and security was tightened as the amount of people increased.

A new command has been set up by the defence ministry, calling it the United Republic Command (URC) with its authority extending to all German military matter in the United Republic of Nations. General Braun was appointed as its commanding officer as he had already established relations with the United Forces, hence would make the politicians' lives much easier. Under his command was part of the 21st Panzer Brigade numbering around three hundred which I am a part of, now more or less just relegated to garrison duty. A civilian department was also set up called the Department of Trade and Exchange (DTE) which handles the economic and political activities in the United Republic.

The DTE was possible mostly due to the fact that the large multi-national corporations our world is being dominated by was very very eager to do trade with the other world and actually help fund and set up the department. One of the first companies to set up on the other side was Volkswagen as per the agreement they had with Future Industries, they didn't set up a car dealership but instead provided technical and mechanical knowledge to improve on the Future Industries' Sato Mobile design making it more efficient and increasing production. Other corporations, like Walmart, made its way into the other world thorough government to government deals which in this case, the USA provided a few billion dollars worth of military equipment to shore up the Bundeswehr which was in a pretty bad shape.

The media blackout imposed at the start of April was lifted which opened the floodgates to thousands upon thousands of journalists on both worlds to try securing a permit to go to the other side. The restrictions on academics are also lifted which again saw thousands of applications to cross the portal although it was still closed to the public.

By then end of the month media stations would devote a large amount of their runtime just talking about the strange new world that popped out of nowhere with their rating at an all time high. There were several collaborations between our media and theirs which produced shows informing the masses about their worlds respectively to the audience of the others. One thing that was made clear by the Bundeswehr that will never be opened freely to the other world was most of the things involving the military, technical and doctrinal.

A magnitude 7.3 earthquake shook Nepal on the twelfth of May with thousands of casualties and the whole world reported on this even, even the media from Republic City. Several days later, the United Republic issued a statement in solidarity with the Himalayan country and even offered aid to help, what the United Republic didn't know though was that there was a far larger earthquake in April, also in Nepal which had over twenty thousand casualties. They didn't know because at that time the media blackout was still in effect, so the statement they did now was somewhat of a delay. Nevertheless the global community applauded the United Republic as it was willing to help even though it was literally another world away.

* * *

June, 2015

Our media had marked a name for the people from the other world... benders, land of the benders, benderland, all sorts of things that they would thing out of their asses while others call them witches and magicians, bringing the end of the world as their religions called for. The media of the United Republic has a more simple label put towards us, simply outworlders.

A new academic committee was established between the 'outworld' and the 'benderworld', as cringey as it sounds. Through this committee, several universities in both worlds had joined hand in had to form networks to enhance the flow of knowledge between the worlds even though most it is going out from us and not in. Through this committee, the first research team to be created was one to search for fault lines in and around Republic City. They had records that Mount Makapu, situated just a few miles east of Makapu Village (the one the original 'Team Avatar' saved while visiting the fortuneteller Aunt Wu) had erupted seventy years ago but they had no prior records of any other eruptions. They wanted to know if and when there could be a major earthquake so that the city could be more prepared by then after what they have learned of the devastating earthquake in Nepal two month before. The team primarily consisted of geologists and volcanologists, their second goal was to actually teach the local geologists and volcanologists so that they could become self sustaining in the future.

Trade was further expanded by the addition of more companies from our world in joint ventures with theirs. It was also this time that the first real local protest began appearing, they were angry that the large corporation had effectively made them unemployed. Most of the protesters were small business owners, businesses that had been heavily affected by the Battle of Republic City a year prior, and the fact that most of the downtown area had been overgrown with spirit vines.

* * *

July, 2015

The first cinema was opened in the trade area, now called Deutschstadt (Germantown in English) by both the local population and the media as it had swelled well over what you would call an outpost. The building the cinema was based on had just started construction two months prior and, once again with the help of earthbenders had already finished, including the interior designs and furnishing. It has twelve screens with a seating capacity of about five hundred each, the first films they featured were the Marvel ones, then after a run of a few weeks turn to other films. Audiences were wowed by the spectacle that they saw and needed to be reminded before the start of the films that they were fictional so that they won't go around and think our world had Iron Men flying around and the Avengers protecting us from aliens, not that they don't know anyway. The cinema was also the first establishment in Deutschstadt to have all employees coming from the local population, most of which were from the small refugee group that were granted refuge in the outpost while it was still under construction two months ago.

With the outworld cinema being firmly established in the United Republic, what little of the mover industry in the country was practically destroyed. Especially hard hit was Varrick's company who, for the last year was in the lead in producing movers. Now just a few days after the cinema opened, local theaters ran dry of customers who would wait in line for hours at the new and hated outworld cinema.

With the rapid expansion of Deutschstadt the road connecting the outpost to the cave, called the Nan Shan road, was upgraded to feature a two way avenue with three lanes each. It was estimated that it would have the capacity to sustain a full cross-world trade without railroads only if the customs and border control are also heavily expanded to deal with the exponential increase in traffic that was sure to come.

NASA's New Horizon spacecraft, which made a flyby of Pluto in the fourteenth of July, was widely publicized especially in the benderworld where space travel is for them something literally out of a sci-fi novel. Now with a public very much intrigued by aerospace in general, President Raiko invited the giants of the industry like Airbus and Boing to try and create an aviation industry in the United Republic from scratch.

* * *

August, 2015

The first report published by the geologists sent alarm bells ringing throughout Republic City, they have discovered a fault system running for over three hundred kilometers on a north-south direction just thirty kilometers east of the metropolis. The report by the United Geological Society, the primary organization in their world that deals with volcanoes and earthquakes which was created along the lines of the United States Geological Survey, stated that there is a stong possibility that the fault line would move in the next decade or so.

Also the first this month, several 'equalists' were caught trying to smuggle guns into Republic City but they didn't get far. The federal police was tipped off by agents in the trade area and they permitted the weapons to go so far as to actually be in the possession of the equalists before the they pounced on them with the help of the metalbanding police of the RCPD, and the new local police force of the Deutschstadt. The federal police had also arrested the ones who were providing the weapons in Germany itself within the day which was a big win PR wise. Truth to be told it was almost impossible to smuggle anything in or out anyway because everything gets checked by the customs officers be it food or air conditioners.

Avatar Korra made her second trip to the outworld so far and it was on a religious convention with the heads of different religions, like the pope and the dalai lama, being present. It was there in order to put to rest that benders are witches and other bad stuff that will bring the demise of the world. With the backing of religious leaders it would make Korra look a lot less mysterious and a lot more relatable, hell there's already a new religion popping up in Munich which worships the avatar, any reincarnations of it and since the thing they're worshiping is actually real membership had started to skyrocket for these new religions.

* * *

September, 2015

September the third was a historic day for the land of the benders, the Earth Republic was officially founded after over a year of nerve wrecking uncertainty with fifty seven provinces within its borders. It was a constitutional monarchy, with King Wu (formerly Prince Wu) as a titular position in the new nation, the real power lies in the parliament with its prime minister being Kalin Ma, a staunch nationalist who in many ways despise the monopoly that the United Republic has over the goods coming from the outworld (its pretty much like how the UK government in our world works). His first order of business was to rebuild the shaken and weakened military after Kuvira's defeat a year ago, he would then need to try and entice the outworlders to trade with the newly formed republic and break the monopoly that the United Republic had for the last five months.

The United Republic and the Bundeswehr had signed onto agreement that would expand Outpost Guderian into an actual base. It would have increased the size of the outpost tremendously with enough area to house a full brigade if needed be, and a single airstrip to service a small force of airplanes and helicopters. It was met with protests on both worlds, with the ones in the United Republic against it because it would mean foreign troops would be stationed in their soil, and in Germany because of sending men outside of the country. The German constitution said that a specific resolution of parliament, which describes the details of the mission and limits its term is needed before troops can be deployed. It did in fact pass through the parliament but its reasoning was less than satisfactory for most people which was ' _to protect our citizens and interests_ ', and a lot of them accuse the government of reviving imperialism. But, it was mostly because of the growing fear within the United Forces that at anytime the new Earth Republic would attack as they knew Prime Minister Kalin Ma had not taken lightly the monopoly they had over trade so far.

It was also this month that Future Industries unveiled a new model for their Sato Mobiles with technology heavily borrowed from Volkswagen. It boasts as to being more fuel efficient than any other cars in this world and was also considerably cheaper because of the new production lines in the same forms as outworld companies have.

* * *

October, 2015

On October the eighteenth seismologists from the United Geological Society with specialist help from outworlders detected small earthquakes around the base of Mount Makapu, too small for non-earthdenders to feel but powerful enough to be picked up by seismometers. They've also discovered gas leaking through the volcano near its peak reinforcing the notion that its will erupt in a few weeks time. It was quickly reported to the authorities so they could formulate a plan when it eventually erupts. Its possible destructiveness was increased exponentially as it sits only fifteen kilometers east of the Republic City fault line, or just forty five kilometers away from the city. If the volcano was to erupt it could very easily trigger an earthquake from the fault line that could go up to a magnitude of 7.0. It was not reported to the media however as to prevent panic in the city and the surrounding countryside.

An inquiry was made into the current state of the Bundeswehr and it was reported on the _Der Spiegel_ that it was in a state of disrepair particularly on the Luftwaffe (air force) where only half of its planes are airworthy and the rest were grounded due to lack of replacement parts. With the current program of building Guderian Base (formerly Outpost Guderian) in the outskirts of Republic City the parliament had voted to increase the budget allocated to the Bundeswehr by over twenty five percent in order to ' _alleviate its shortfalls and increase its effectiveness in defending German interests in both worlds_ '. With the budget increase comes protests once again with them seeing the government going through the route of militarization that the constitution had stopped since the end of the second world war.

* * *

On the sixth day of November, the worst fears of the United Geological Society has been realized. A week ago the volcano started to become far more active than it had been with lava flows coming from the mouth of the volcano being reported with help of outworld helicopters. Just three days ago a general evacuation had been ordered to everyone within twenty kilometers of the volcano. All was set and well, the government was ready for the eruption and the effects of massive ash clouds, what they were not ready was when the eruption was to come, it will not only come with fury and fire but it will also come with destruction that can only be with the movements of tectonic plates within the ground.


	10. 109: Fault Lines

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 9: Fault Lines**

November 6, 1000H

 _An earthquake? Now? No no no, fuck!_

The whole room shook as the ground did, the needles of the seismometers in the room were going haywire recording the tremor all the way up to a magnitude 7.3. Well that's what Dr. Richardson said anyways cause I sure as hell don't know how to read those things.

Dr. Richardson was part of the small contingent of United States Geographic Survey seismologists sent to Republic City after they've discovered the fault line a few months prior, little did any of us know we'll be smack right in the middle of the earthquake when it finally happened.

"Everyone hold on!" I shouted. _Not like they're not holding onto anything dumb ass._

It kept on shaking, one of the guy's printer fell down to the floor and the other's laptop followed suit. Thankfully we're in a tent on the ground and not on a tall building which would make it far far scarier and worse. There weren't really anything solid to hold onto so I just dropped to the floor and hoped the ground below me won't just crack open and swallow us up, thankfully it neve happened.

A few minutes past and the quake finally stopped, I immediately stood up to check the damage and made a head count.

"At least no one's hurt staff sergeant." Walter Ruderford said as he brushed off the dust from his uniform. "I can't say the same for the rest of the city though."

 _Fuck._

I rushed out of the tent to survey the damage done to the surrounding area, we were positioned just a kilometer away from the fault line to monitor it when the volcano erupted. It was just a small team, my squad to provide security to the small team of seismologists and their instruments. We set up just a day ago when the volcano was getting ready to erupt.

 **BOOM**

It was loud, far louder than any of the documentaries would have explained. As I turned around I saw the black ash cloud coming out from the volcano... well I couldn't see the volcano itself anymore because of the ash but its starting to form the distinct shape of a mushroom. _Yep, this looks like one of them documentaries alright._

The ground shook again, but it was too weak to be an aftershock. _At least its summer in this world and not winter... two seasons off from our world huh._

"Its the volcano." Dr. Richardson walked beside me. "Its not the aftershock if you're wondering, it'll come later, but not too late though." He didn't look at me, he just started onto the dark cloud that's starting to come our way. "If the eruption's as powerful as we had predicted then we should get going, wouldn't want to be in the path of a pyroclastic flow now would we." He grinned before patting my shoulder.

"Doctor, shouldn't we check the fault line first? We're just a kilometer away." I asked, turning around and tried to follow him back into the large tent.

"And that's exactly why we should bug out now sergeant. I might risk it if Avatar Korra's here with us but she's not." He paused then looked towards the west. "I wonder how's Republic City's doing now, sure those big skyscrapers are built with earthquakes in mind but what about those smaller ones? The ones that most of the people living in the city actually reside?"

It did cross my mind, those smaller buildings that were not built to standard. Nothing much I can do there.

Steinmeier appeared from the tent, snapping me out from my thoughts. "Sir, Guderian base radioed us and asked for our condition right now."

"What did you say?" I replied as the doctor got back into the tent.

"I said we're all accounted for sir, no injuries though some equipment damaged."

"Good... Had anyone checked the cars yet?"

"Yes sir, Private Wagner's already on it."

"Okay, anything more? Did they say what the state of the base is in now?"

"Negative sir."

 _Hmm, we'll know once we get back anyway._

 **BOOM**

Another thunderous explosion, this time much louder than before and the both of us jerked our heads around to see the clouds starting to cover the midday sun. _This is bad._

"Steinmeier, get everyone to pack up now! Double time! I don't want to be museum pieces like those poor bastards at Pompeii became!"

"Yes sir, right away sir!" and with that he quickly got back into the tent and started barking orders.

It gave me time to close my eyes and focus my mind. When I opened it after a few seconds the whole place looked dark, far darker than before. _Wow this fast huh._ As I look up I saw the ash clouds covering what remains of the sun and in a few minutes the whole place would be as dark as night. _Except there wouldn't be stars to decorate the sky._

"Come one!." I shouted while getting into the tent. "Get your asses moving!"

I helped them move all the equipment back into the three army trucks waiting, the tent was being dismantled and we didn't even bothered to pack it... we just threw it to the back of one of the trucks and it was at that moment that the thick grey ash started falling. _Faster faster faster!_

We finished loading everything ten minutes later, by then the whole place had already gone dark and we needed to use the flashlights on our guns to move around without bumping to one another. Everyone quickly loaded up to the nearest truck and off we go as quickly as the shitty dirt road would allow us anyway.

"Corporal Ruderford can you go any faster?" I said. We were on the lead truck and he was driving while I was beside riding shotgun.

"Well if you want to be on the casualty list then by all means sir!" He said sarcastically. "With it being this dark and a shitty dirt road with no lights but our own, I'm pretty much driving blind here sir."

I looked over to his speedometer. _Twenty kilometers per hour, god It'll take us over an hour to get back to base._

BOOM

Another explosion, but this doesn't sound like it came from the volcano. No no no this was thunder by the sound of it. _How the fuck did it form this quickly, hell the ones in our world took far longer before the bloody ashes even covered the sun!_ Then again this is a different world with possibly different laws of physics at work.

The truck's radio crackled and I recognized it as Dr. Richardson's voice. "Sergeant if we continue going at this speed..." There was uncertainty in his voice. "We could go out of the range of the pyroclastic flow."

"Well thank god that's a good news for once."

"Another thing sergeant, I was there when Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted and what we're doing now is what I've also done over twenty years ago but..." He paused. "But with the data we've gathered so far it looks like this one's going to be more powerful than Pinatubo and I don't know how, the last time this erupted was seventy years ago but Pinatubo's was four hundred. If I'm correct it'll mean that the build up of pressure within the volcanoes of this world if far far quicker than it is in ours."

"Noted, anything more doctor?"

"No sergeant."

"Okay, Tchaikovsky out."

"So do you think we'll get smouldered to death by the ash?" Ruderford commented as I put the radio back onto the dashboard.

"Don't think so, if the spirits of this world don't hate us which I assume they might since they're real and we've been cutting down quite a lot of trees to expand the base lately."

* * *

When we finally arrived back at base five hours later it looked surprisingly orderly. It took us that long when it was normally just an hour was because we needed to take a detour as the dirt road became clogged with people also running away from the volcano, we didn't even bother to go through the normal route which was through the city since its obviously in a state of fucked up, instead we took the other small roads that go around the outskirt of the city.

Looking up to the sky as we parked the vehicles beside the HQ building and got out, the whole place was just black. The sun's fully covered and it looked like night when its supposed to be three in the afternoon. It was also raining, raining thick muddy substance that was made out of the ashes in the sky. _Jesus, this is getting more and more like those documentaries_.

I scanned the area and saw all of the buildings in the base holding up quite well, they're built up to modern standards but I wasn't sure about most of the buildings in Republic City as the visibility was just at a hundred meters or so. On a normal sunny day most of the skyscrapers in the city would be visible from the base but today, there was nothing but darkness.

"Ah staff sergeant, a bit late arn't we yes?"

I turned to see General Braun standing on the small door leading into the HQ building with his adjutant close behind.

"General Braun we're, uh yeah..."

He signaled for the group to get into the building and after we placed the equipments down and patted off the ash from our clothes the general lead us to the 'command room' with several tables arranged in a U and chairs around it with the hollow part of the U having a small stool for a projector which could project onto a screen towards the opening of the U.

"Sit." he waved his hands as he sat down on the chair opposite of the screen. "I assume you guys want to know what's happening out there yes?"

"Well from the looks of things its not pretty general." said Dr. Richardson as the rest of us sat down on the sides of the tables.

The general groaned. "There are no fatalities in this base so far but we've gotten reports of some collapsed buildings in Deutschstadt as for the city itself... we have nothing for now, just trickles of information but not enough to bring the whole picture up."

"Can't we radio them sir?" I asked

"We could but the ashes are interfering with the signals far worse than it would in our world so until the sky lights up we can't do anything but to sit tight." towards Dr. Richardson: "Doctor, what was your predictions for the eruption?"

"Sir initial predictions has the volcano having an initial eruption followed by a few more after at least two days, then there would be a final eruption which would be the largest one just several hours afterwards. Based on what we saw, and the data we've gathered out there it seems like this is THE one judging from the amount of particles it spewed out and the magnitude of it." Dr. Richardson paused to catch his breath. "But since we're in another world I wouldn't rule this out being the initial eruption and after a few more day the big one."

"Hmm." The general groaned once more. "If this continues for several days then we won't be able to use the airfield to medivac casualties." _Medivac? So we're going to go help then, that's good._

General Braun must have seen my small grin as he said towards me "Tchaikovsky, I want you out there the moment everything settles down."

"Yes sir."

"Good, now all we have to do is it hunker down for a few more hours, or a few days at worst"

* * *

We were back to the command room two days later when the skies cleared up and relief operations could start at a reasonable pace. This time I was the only one from our group to be present, the rest of the twenty seats were occupied by General Braun , the local air force commander Lieutenant Colonel Hans Krammel, the local army commander Major Erik Schütt, Chief Beifong of the RCPD, General Iroh of the United Forces, and several others who looked important which I don't recognize. _Welp, looks like I'm in a cave of giants where just a word from any of them would kill off my career._

We were being shown footage shot from the RCPD airships a few hours ago showing the destruction in the city.

"As we can see here" General Braun started as the video continue rolling "Most of the collapsed buildings are from the 'poorer' areas of the city as the skyscrapers are relatively unscratched saved for that one that collapsed..."

"The Cabbage Corp. headquarters." Chief Beifong added

"Yes, that one." the general continued "As you are all aware this base had been accepting civilians that came here for medical assistance into the hospital. BUT, until the defence ministry back home approves of the request I made for more... well everything, we are not in a position to provide much help. If we did so now, we could only provide enough for maybe a thousand civilians or so before we run dry." the general looked to the army commander "Major Schütt, how many men do we have?"

"Just over four hundred general."

"How about you Colonel Krammel."

The colonel bit his lips and exhaled. "We got six Huey choppers which with the ground crews and support units all told... about a hundred and forty sir."

"Hmm." the general leaned forward and supported his chin with both his hands "Well Chief Beifong, I think you could use my men to at least help with rescue operations."

She crossed her arms. "Thank you general, they would be invaluable. My men are already stretched thin even with several thousand of General Iroh's men helping. This disaster is on a scale unseen before in Republic City."

"Yes it is, I've already put everyone in the Republic City garrison to work and I'm also sending for more men from other parts of the country." Iroh added.

"Now" General Braun looked at me "How many men could you effectively lead on the field staff sergeant?"

At that point everyone in the room looked at me. I gulped. _What the fuck of a question is that?_ "Well as a non commissioned officer I could control about a squad sir and..."

The general interrupted me. "I know about the ranks sergeant, I'm asking you personally. How many CAN you lead?"

"Ah." I mumbled "I... umm, I don't know sir. The largest I had commanded was a squad."

"Very well. Chief Beifong." He paused, thinking "I'll give you a platoon under Lieutenant Gottlieb, then I'll add the staff sergeant's squad in so you'll have... fifty men more or less."

"Thank you general." Lin replied.

"What about Avatar Korra?" I asked

General Braun was about to say something when Chief Beifong beat him to it "Avatar Korra has been helping in the city since the initial earthquake, I've been telling her to take some time off. You know she've only slept a few of hours for the two days she's been helping out."

"Oh." Was all I could say _Damn, she's really..._

"Sergeant Tchaikovsky, do you have any more questions?" General Braun asked.

"No sir." I quickly replied

"Very well, let us continue."

The meeting continued on for a few more hours talking about making shelter for the tens of thousands of civilians displaced and the coordination of the relief effort to come. It was also discussed what the role of the small German contingent in Lin's police force was going to do, and set limits and have a ranking system which would see us included in the police's table of organization.

After the meeting and with everyone dismissed, General Braun asked me to stay back because he had some 'sensitive information' to convey to me.

"Can you repeat to me what's the role of your squad Geraldt." the general said. _He called me by my first name, that's very very odd._

"Well, my ten man squad is to provide protection and assistance to Lieutenant Gottlieb's platoon since they'll be going in unarmed to help out with the police, sir."

"Good, good. Now I'll be adding some more to your objectives Geraldt." He scanned the empty room seemingly paranoid that someone or something might hear what he was about to say. "You know how during disasters, especially ones in cities, that bad guys always spring up to take advantage of it."

"Yes sir, that's why we put state of emergencies to effect."

"Very good Geraldt, now I have reports that the Equalists in the city have been trying to get guns _._ None of it got to them thankfully but I don't think it'll last seeing how much shit the city's in." He leaned in closer and lowered his voice "Your primary objective is still to protect Gottlieb's platoon but your secondary is to collect out information about Equalists."

I frowned. "But sir isn't that the job of General Iroh's intelligence services, or the metalbending police?"

"I know I know but" he waved his hands dismissively "I would like to have one for ourselves too."

"Well, what about the Federal Intelligence Service?"

The general leaned back onto his seat, crossing his arms "I'll be too obvious sending small groups Germans into a disaster zone, besides you and your men have the perfect cover."

"But I don't know anything about spying sir." I tried protesting, all in vain

"I know that's why I'm telling you to just collect information passively, like listening to the survivors or policemen, I'm not telling you to go in and do it Sherlock Holmes style Geraldt."

"Okay sir"

"Good, any more questions?"

"None sir."

"Very good, I'll be sending you off tomorrow morning. You should use the rest of the day to brief your men, and remember to tell them this is a clandestine operation. NO ONE, I repeat NO ONE should know about it other than your squad, understood?"

"Yes sir."

"Oh by the way." he took a folded piece of paper form one of his pockets, waved it a bit in front of me, then handed it over "Its a procurement slip for the carbine versions of the HK417 battle rifle. I'm planning to slowly change from the G36 as the service rifle to that one." He pointed at the paper "The bigger seven-six-two round of the 417 would pack a bigger punch in those close quarters combat and it'll be a big help when taking down those guys who're martial arts experts."

"Ah" I opened the paper and quickly read it "So the whole squad's changing sir?"

"Yeah, I'm planning to have the whole command change by the end of the year."

"I see."

There was awkward silence in the room as I waited for him to say something while probably at the same time he's doing the same thing.

"Well Geraldt, you ahve any more questions?"

"No sir."

"Very well, good luck sergeant."

* * *

Darkness and dust fell all over me. _What the fuck happened? A moment ago... right right, the bloody floor gave away._ I could hear voices but not discern what it was saying or who's it from. Still lying on the floor I tried getting up. _Ok good, looks like I don't have any broken bones._ Moments later a hand grabbed my right arm and helped me up.

"Sir are you alright?"

I shook my head trying to clear it and looked up to see it was our medic Walter, thank god.

"Yeah doc I'm fine, I'm fine, thanks." Standing on my feet I tried getting my bearing as to where I was.

"Quite a nasty fall sir, thankfully we were close by." he said as he let go of me

"Yeah." I looked up to see a hole about two meters wide just over four meters high. _Wow, that's one hell of a fall._ I walked forward a bit before stepping on an exposed steel rebar sticking out of the collapsed concrete floor "Damn, I could've died." I kicked the rebar lightly to get Walter's attention.

"Yep, you wanna get out of here yet sir? We've got a rope down already."

"Yeah yeah, just a minute. I'd like to know where this is. You go up first."

"Ok sir." He said as he started climbing up the wall.

 _Phew okay now calm..._

Just a few minutes ago we were with Lieutenant Gottlieb's platoon providing them with security as they were pulling out survivors from the rubbles of the Dragon Flats Borough. We came in with seven trucks, five to transport us in while the two carried medical supplies and food for the immediate needs of any remaining survivors. We were sent alone in this part of the district except for a metalbending officer who will coordinate with the rest of the police.

It was still blurry what happened, I was just walking into an uncollapsed building when I heard some noises coming from within and the moment I stepped in the whole floor just gave away and down I fall into this hole... _Wait is that a fucking tunnel tucked in that dark corner? Holy shit it is!_

"Doc!" I shouted. "Doc there's a fucking tunnel!"

Walter was halfway up when he heard me. "Tunnel?" he replied.

"Yeah, tunnel. Hey tell them to get three guys down here and the rest I'll put on your command for now since your the corporal."

"Alright, what do you want me to do up there sir?"

"The normal shit doc."

"Roger."

As I waited for the men to come down I took a closer inspection of the tunnel. It was quite small, just over a meter high (four and a half feet I say) and about two and a half feet wide. It doesn't have any lights but so far on what I could see with the light from the hole over our heads it goes deep into, well somewhere.

"Sir?" Herman spoke as I was still pondering about the tunnel.

"Ah, okay who came down?"

"Me, Karl, and Jonathan sir."

"Good good. Check your weapons and ammo boys." I said to all of them "Who's got a flashlight?"

"I do sir." Karl trotted forward holding up his rifle with a small flashlight attached to its front.

"Good good, okay since you have the light you're on point."

"Yes sir." he replied.

"Lets get moving then."

We formed up in a line with Karl up front, me behind him with Herman and Jonathan behind me respectively. We slowly inched forward with rifles at the ready having Karl be the group's eyes, all the while I was taking in the atmosphere of the tunnel. It doesn't have any noticeable smell and the bare concrete walls looked well maintained but has several cracks here and there which I presume was because of the earthquake. There's a single wire attached to the upper right part of the tunnel through stapler-like metal strips, lightbulbs were attached onto it every five feet or so but none of them is working, presumably damaged because of the earthquake. The echoes though... holy shit, the smallest of sounds would echo all across the length of the tunnel so there wasn't any point of trying to be stealthy really.

Continuing onto the darkness with thumping boots echoing throughout the tunnel, we arrived at our first obstacle: a corner. Why? It, being a corner in a tunnel meant there is no way for us to see if there's any form of trap waiting for us when we got around it. Its one of the most important features of close quarters combat and it where people get surprised and be cut down by well hidden enemies.

We could throw a flashbang around to try and clear it but that won't work because, well we're in a tunnel. I could sent Karl ahead and if he got fucked then the rest of us would know something's up and try something else but the downside is Karl getting fucked. Or the dumbest is for all of us to rush around it so if one of us go down, the rest could still shoot at whatever enemy awaits, of course if it wasn't a person but just some mechanical trap like an IED then that means we're all fucked anyway.

Herman tapped my shoulder as we got to the corner "What should we do?" _That is an excellent question in which I barely have an answer to_

I half turned my head to reply but nothing came out, I looked back to where Karl was kneeling down. Biting my lips I again half turned my head "Someone's going ahead and..."

 **BAM**

I was on the floor with my whole body numb not from pain, but just numb. Gunfire rang all around me as I tried moving my body in vain. I was able to move my neck upwards and my right arm, but it was wholly inadequate to turn my body around let alone move. As the deafening gunfire in the tunnel died down I saw the flashlight on Karl's rifle lighting up the corner, I then looked up (which was away from the corner, towards where we came from) an saw a pair of green eyes shining in the darkness just a few meters away looking straight at me.

 _Oh shit, that's an equalists. That means I'm chi-blocked... fuck._

For some reason he wasn't moving so I immediately reached for my standard-issue USP pistol strapped onto my right thigh and pointed it at him. He saw what I was doing and started running towards me and I pulled the trigger as fast as I could being scared as fuck.

My shots were not at all accurate being attributed to the uncomfortable twisted state I was in and the fact that I could only move my right arm and my head. He dodged the first few shots no problem but as he got closer the fifth or so shot hit its mark. It hit him squarely on his chest with the remaining ten rounds making contact with various other body parts.

He dropped like a sack of potatoes, no dramatic flailing, just straight down. I tried holstering my pistol and took a deep breath to calm myself down, then tried to picture out what had just happened.

"Sir... what the fuck just happened?" Karl blurted out as he tried to get up. "What the fuck, I can't move both my arms"

"Calm down private its just chi-blocking, it'll wear off soon enough" _I hope_ "Hey since you can stand up, go check on Herman and Jonathan for me will you? As you can see I'm a bit... stunned." I gestured my body using the one functional arm.

"Alright sir." he replied

After fumbling around a bit he eventually got up to his feet and walked towards the remaining two in my squad and quickly checked them out. "They're unconscious sir but still alive."

 _Thank god they're not dead._ "Okay good work, since you're able to walk go back to the opening and call for help quickly."

"Right away sir." and with that he darted into the darkness.

It took them a while but they finally got here, I was able to hear their footsteps far before I was able to see their lights. Karl wasn't in front since that person was holding a rifle with a flashlight but I could hear his voice.

"Sir? Sir! Jesus are you alright?" It was Walter. _Thank the army for medics_

"I'm fine but Jonathan and Herman's out cold."

"Yeah, Karl's told us about it. He's topside resting for now."

As the small group moved closer Walter went to pick Herman up over his shoulder and the other guys who I think is from Lt. Gottlieb's platoon carried Jonathan and our stuff that are lying on the ground

Is was beginning to wonder who's going to pick me up when a familiar low yet soothing female voice started talking to me. "Wow Geraldt, you got fucked up huh?"

"Oh hey Korra, quite a while since I've seen you." She's got long hair now with the weird triple ponytail style which I saw she had in pictures a few years ago.

"Uh huh, come on lets get out of here."

"Help me up? You sure you... woah woah woah! Jesus."

She grabbed my right arm and pulled my whole body over her shoulders in a fireman's carry/lift with ease. _Damn she's this strong huh._ She walked for a few seconds back towards the surface before stopping like she forgot something, then turned around and with a stomp on the ground earthbent a wall to close off the tunnel behind us. "I'll come back for them later." She murmured.

It was far more uncomfortable being carried this way than it looks, well actually not that uncomfortable since most of my body was numb. I bobbed up and down with every step she took and it was a little over ten minutes of awkward silence before we finally got out of the tunnel. My men were waiting for us and had prepared ropes to haul me up but Korra being Korra simply earthbent a platform beneath her feet up to the ground.

And that's when I got knocked out by something.

* * *

November 7

I grunted and groaned as I got my senses back. The first thing I saw as I opened my eyes were the bright LED light right above me. _LED... that means I'm back at base._ I tried to move my whole body and what do you know, I can move again! I sat up and looked around trying to figure out where I was. _Okay, big-ass room with dozens of beds in several rows with my bed on one of the corners... I'm in a military hospital._

"Ah good morning Staff Sergeant Tchaikovsky, I see that you're awake ."

I looked to my right and saw a male nurse approaching, holding a clipboard and a stethoscope. "Uh yeah, how long had I been out?"

"Just a day sir." He walked to the foot of the bed and started reading the notes pinned to a small board. "You were chi-blocked, then got hit in the head by falling debris after Avatar Korra retrieved you from the tunnel." _Ah, so that's what knocked me out._

"Wait, but I was wearing my helmet." I said confused.

"Yes you were but the report said that the piece of concrete that fell onto the back of your head weighed about a kilo and falling from at that speed, it was a miracle that it didn't kill you right then and there or put you into a coma."

"Oh... that bad huh" I continued wiggling my body around trying to make sure nothing was off.

"Yeah, lucky Avatar Korra was there. She healed some of your head wounds but the brain stuff." he tapped his head "Not really effective."

"Ah"

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Um, okay I guess. Nothing seemed off."

The nurse started writing down stuff on his clipboard. "You'll undergo a physical examination and if you passed, well you're going to be discharged from the hospital." He then scanned the empty ward with a sudden and tired look on his face. "This whole place is going to be full later you know, when we start accepting civilians en masse." He then looked at me, sighed, then continued "I bet you guys see things that are a hell of a lot worse than what I'll see in here."

I scratched my head. "I haven't seen much yet but.. seeing the scale of the earthquake its not going to take long."

He smiled faintly. "Well sir, you want to get out of here yet or what?"

* * *

November 7 1100H

I was back at the barracks and the whole place looks deserted as most of the men were deployed to help Republic City, so I was told. I proceeded to get into uniform and went to the mess hall to get something to eat with lunch time being from eleven thirty to one in the afternoon.

As I entered the mess hall the two TVs were showing something live about a meeting that's about to happen in the Bundestag which no one in the hall were giving any attention at all. I bought a drink from one of the several vending machines and sat down on the benches waiting for lunch time to come. It was then when I start watching the TV and... wait, is that Raiko?

He was standing on the podium, waving as he waited for the applause to die down. _Wow jesus, how the hell did I not know he went to Berlin?_ He started his speech as the applause died down with it being immediately translated into German:

 _"As you may have known, Republic City and its surrounding areas was struck by a very large and destructive earthquake just two days ago, it brought destruction on a scale never before seen in my world. In the months that we have discovered each other we had learned a lot from each other and improving the lives of people in my world through technology. Now in times of need I have seen what the people here do in order to help one another, so I am asking the nations of this Earth for help in any form. Not to help the United Republic as a country, but to help its citizens battered by this calamity, I ask the nations of this Earth to set aside any differences we might have to help the people terribly in need because in the end, we're all humans."_


	11. 110: Turmoil

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 10: Turmoil**

NOTE: all vehicles here are left-hand drive

November 15 0630H

The sun rose over Yue Bay as Guderian Base was jammed pack with hundreds of trucks and thousands of men from all over the world. Out of the more than one hundred and seventy countries that exists in our world, some one hundred and fifty of them answered to Raiko's call just over a week ago. They gave tonnes and tonnes of supplies and have established a temporary 'tent city' outside of Guderian Base and it now houses over sixty thousand people.

Operations have now shifted from rescuing survivors to trying to feed and cloth them. All me and my squad did in a week was transferring boxes of food and other goodies from one truck to another and to waiting helicopters flying in and out of the base. _So much for discovering an equalist lair... Well_ _,_ _fell into it to be exact._ I could still remember my conversation with Korra about it during one of my breaks:

[{ _"After you got sent to the hospital... literally, I got back into the tunnel and discovered what looked like an underground warehouse of sorts. There were a handful if chi-blockers which I easily took down, what's in the warehouse was a whole different story." She took a drink from her waterskin while sitting down beside me on one of the benches in the base.. "They've got mecha-tanks Geraldt, not just the old ones but they've also got the newer models... the ones Kuvira used a year before."_

 _"So I've heard" I said, eating a sandwich "the mecha-suits, they're still being used by the Earth Republic right?"_

 _"Yeah they are." She bit her lips and looked at me straight in the eye. "Do you thing the Earth Republic is supplying them?"_

 _I winced "I don't know, our governments still haven't released anything about it, but if it was indeed from the Earth Republic... shit's going to go down."_

 _"That's what I was afraid of, not even three years and we might get another war in our hands."_

 _I finished my sandwich and crumpled its plastic cover into a ball before throwing it into a trashcan nearby. "Welp, whatever they discovered its still really bad equalists have mecha-tanks again, in the middle of Republic City no less." I sighed. "If it wasn't fir the earthquake we might not have discovered it in time."_

 _"Yeah." She replied tiredly, leaning forward and placing her elbows close to her knees. "You've still got boxes to move don't you?" She asked cheerfully_

 _"Yep, but I've still got ten more minutes in my break."_

 _"Ah." She leaned back onto the bench. "Soooo... watcha think of Asami?"_

 _Wow that came out of nowhere_ _"Excuse me?"_

 _"You know, how she is and stuff like that."_

 _"Ah.. well.. uh.." I tried but obviously failed at not stuttering._

 _"Come on Geraldt, no need to be embarrassed its just you and me here " That's the point isn't it_

 _"Well I think she's nice..."_

 _She leaned closer to me, grinning "and?"_

 _"She's uhh, pretty? What the hell do you want Korra?"_

 _"Since she's my girlfriend" she sat upright once more, away from me "its nice to know what other people think of her, be it negative or positive."_

 _"Ah" hastily, I looked at my watch. "Seems like my break's almost up " I stood up and stretched a little. "nice talking to you again after that big-ass chunk if concrete knocked me out cold."_

 _"Yeah." A faint smile appeared on her face. "Good luck sergeant."_

 _I turned around. "You too Avatar Korra."_ }]

That was more or less how the conversation went, there are definitely discrepancies between this and what actually happened but that's as much as I could remember. Thinking about stuff like this definitely makes the mindless work less boring.

* * *

November 18 0900H

General Braun was seated behind his desk, busy as always, as I entered the office in the HQ building. He looked up after hearing me greet him with a salute wearing my fatigues and told me to sit on the chair in front of the desk.

"So sergeant, I heard your unit was used to help transfer the relief goods yes?"

"Yes sir."

"Well I've got new orders for your squad." He gave me the papers, signed by him.

I read it before reacting "So my unit is going to be transferred from Major Krugger to Captain Horton's because he doesn't have enough men?"

"That's right sergeant"

"Isn't Captain Horton's company the ones escorting the trucks going into the city?"

"Yes."

"Hmm... the major isn't going to be happy about this, we already don't have enough men as we were."

General Braun leaned back onto his chair and stroke his stubble. "You're right, but Horton's company needs replacements after, well... that incident and the fact that I'm their commanding officer."

Convoys are being escorted when they're sent to places outside the immediate vicinity of Republic City because there are a number of bandits who would happily attack unprotected trucks with lots and lots if food while the police is busy restoring order in the city itself. But _that_ incident, a few days ago a convoy bound for some small isolated town close to the border with the Earth Republic was ambushed en route just a few kilometers from the town itself killing two soldiers and an aid worker, and wounding ten with six in critical condition forcing the Luftwaffe to divert one of its helicopters for a medevac. It was still unknown who the attackers exactly were, but what is known from the eight bodies recovered by the army that were riddled with bullets is that the attackers were earthbenders, no question about it (it was also based in the fact that they earthbended when they attacked the convoy). What is unknown is where they're from and who's their boss.

"Horton needs more men." The general continued "I can get some of those volunteers to replace you and your men from moving boxes around but I can't send them to be escorts, they're not army remember, just civilian volunteers."

"I understand sir"

"Very well, report to Captain Horton after you give the papers to Major Krugger." He waved me off nonchalantly.

"Yes sir." I stood up and saluted, he replied with his salute sitting down. I then got out of the office, and the HQ building headed to Major Krugger.

On the way to his tent (which was on the other side if the base) I heard helicopters taking off and landing from the airfield which is just behind the HQ building and I could also hear several more flying around. _This sure is a busy place._ As I walked across the base I could see the big open area where trucks from Germany come to drop their goodies off to be transferred, it was literally a big open grassland with some rudimentary fencing to keep people out. It was 'built' just four days after the quake as an extension of the base and is now occupying an area half as big as the base itself with a capacity of several hundred trucks (the whole base including the airfield was about five square kilometers big by now).

Fifteen minutes later I arrived at the major's tent, and after composing myself and asked for permission, went it.

"Morning sir" I saluted then gave him the paper. "Orders from General Braun." I stood at attention

He stood up and walked around the plastic foldable table and took the paper. Reading it one of his eyebrows shot up before getting back to normal. "Huh, well at least I'll get replacements." He whispered, then got back to his chair behind the table. "Alright, sergeant you should go and round your men up while I do the paperwork."

"Yes sir." I saluted and got out of the tent, breathing in the not so polluted air heavily, I let out a sight. _Finally I'm going to be out there again!_

* * *

Captain Horton was busy assigning squads to escort the convoys when we finally met him at the staging area. Me and my squad of ten are already fully decked out with our gears when we reported to the captain. Our equipment includes the standard H&K 417 carbine version, the H&K USP pistol, body armor (because why not), knee and elbow pads, the standard uniform set (fatigue, helmet, boots) with the Flecktarn camouflage pattern, gloves, and radios.

"Captain Horton?" I said as I approached him.

He looked up from the small clipboard he was holding and started scrutinizing me. "Staff Sergeant Tchaikovsky is it?"

"Yes sir."

"Good good, is that your squad?" He pointed using his ballpen to the small clump of men talking to each other a few meters away.

"Yes sir, all ten of us."

"Okay..." He started through the papers on the clipboard. "You're on convoy C8 bound for the Makapu Evacuation Center, its about a hundred something kilometers to the east on the far side of the volcano which didn't get affected by the pyroclastic flow." he put the clipboard down "the convoy's got ten supply trucks and two HUMVEEs with fifty cals, one up front and one in the back. The route you'll be taking is mountainous so don't be surprised if the road gets blocked by landslides, right now we don't know if they are since we've only flown chopper to the evacuation center and not land convoys... if you were to encounter a blockage of the road then get your ass back here."

"Yes sir, but a hunvee?" I asked puzzled. "Don't we use eagles?"

"Yeah, they're part of the deal with the Americans which included artillery pieces and all the other military goodies... have you been living under a rock sergeant? That got signed months ago."

"Oh, well I heard about it but didn't really read into it."

He shrugged "Now you know" he glanced at his watch. "They convoy will be moving in half an hour, you should get going sergeant."

"Yes sir." I saluted then went to where the rest of my squad is.

After briefing them we went on to where convoy C8 was parked which was thankfully not in the clusterfuck of the extended truck parking area. Instead, C8 was parked somewhere in the same staging area we were in. As we approached C8 I observed that each of the trucks have the red cross painted onto the white canvass coverings. _Wow, these are definitely not army trucks._ The trucks looked like the ones used for delivery in the cities back in our world. _Damn, are we really that overstretched?_

"Heyyy!"

I could hear a girl shouting, scanning around trying to locate the source I saw here beside the lead truck waving at us to get closer. She's got black hair with fair skin wearing the red cross t-shirt with jeans and rubber shoes. Beside the trucks I could see several more red cross guys talking.

"Heyyy!" The girl shouted again accompanied by waving.

"Lets go guys." I said to the squad tilting my head towards the girl. "Hallo" The word came out of my mouth instinctively as we approached her.

"Hey! My name's Rachel, good to finally meet you." She walked ahead and shook my hands. _Wait did she just spoke to me in english?_

I looked down and sure enough the Union Jack was on her left shoulder patch. _Well I'll be damned, she's British! Hope my english is still good, quite a while since the last time I conversed in english._

"Hallo! I'm Oberfeldwebel Tchaikovsky of the 3rd Company, United Republic Command."

"Ah, like the famous pianist?" she asked.

"Yeah, but we're not related in any way."

"Mmhmm" She glanced at me through the corner of her eyes before turning around towards the trucks, mumbling something.

A quick glance at the other red cross men confirms they're a British contingent. _Well, at least there's international help coming in._ I checked my watch : 0945H. _Hmm fifteen minutes left before we move out, better get the men ready._

"Hey sarge! The fifties doesn't have the kevlar turret! Not even a cheap-ass gun shield!" Herman was in the front of the convoy pointing at the humvee parked there. "I mean, jesus fuck it still got the desert camo on! Where do they think we are, Afghanistan? It doesn't even have any of the armor add-ons."

"What the hell did you expect?" Ruderford, who was standing beside me, shouted back. "Do you really think they'll give us brand new out-of-the-factory humvees complete with all the weapons and armor? Of course not!"

"Hey hey pipe down, both of you." I interrupted to prevent it boiling into a full blown argument. "Doc, get the men sorted... I'll want three into both of the humvees and the remaining spread out throughout the trucks of the convoy."

"Got it sarge" Ruderford nodded in agreement, then went to start shuffling the troops.

Rachel tapped my shoulder to get my attention, "Hey sergeant, quick question how's the disposition of the troops gonna be?" she said it with somewhat of a twinkle in her eyes.

"Okay, the humvees will have three guys: one driver, one radio operator, and one gunner. The remaining four men would be spread out riding with you guys on every other truck starting from the second one."

"Hmm, so would you be riding with us?"

"Nein... I mean no, I'll be in front with the lead humvee."

"Okay then!" She jolted. "Lets get moving, we don't want to be late now do we?" She said winking.

* * *

1210H, 32km East of Makapu Evacuation Center

Two hours in and we're just a little over halfway there. The first fourty kilometers was very nice, we got to see some lovely landscape and since we were travelling on a modern-ish highway, it took us no time to reach the base of the mountainous region. Starting from that point the convoy can't move more than fourty kmph since the quake damaged portions of the underdeveloped road (two way with one lane each, unpaved).

The road wind and zigzagged up and down the mountain as the road was built on the mountain side with a several hundred foot drop right beside us, though the view was spectacular. About an hour more we entered what looked like a valley though the valley slope are just gentle rolling hills and are not very steep.

"That's strange, this doesn't look like the one in the map." Herman commented, he was the driver on the lead humvee, while I sat on the passenger seat. Klaus (some new guy who got assigned to me) is up top on the fifty cal.

I took the map out from the glove compartment as I hummed and started comparing our surroundings to the ones in the map. _Hmm the land's greyish here, there are even quite a lot of boulders lying around on the hills. That's to be expected from the ash that came from the volcano, damn and just a few kilometers back most of it still looked green._

"So sarge, we going the right way?" Herman sounded concerned.

"Yeah we are." I replied "There's only one road after we got off the highway, I mean have we even got to any kind of intersection yet?"

"You're right, we haven't. God this is a long-ass road." He said as I fold the map and placed it back into the glove compartment.

"We're still about thirty kilometers away from Makapu and at this rate..." I looked over to the speedometer "Thirty six-thirty five kilometers per hour, yeah an hour more."

He sighed. "Damn, and I though the road trip would be exciting, this is kinda underwhelming."

"Hey you should be happy we're out of the bloody base, when was the last time we got out? Three, four months ago?"

"Yeah I guess, sir."

The car fell into silence , before long my eyes started getting heavy. _Ugh not now, should've drank more coffee before we moved out._ I closed my eyes for a moment letting it rest and tipped my helmet down to block at least some of the sun, but then I was suddenly jolted by someone shaking me.

"Hey sarge wake up, we got a big problem." It was Herman.

"Ugh, what now?" I rubbed my eyes trying to remove the sleepiness within it.

"Well um sir, the road's blocked up ahead."

"What?" I looked ahead and sure enough, it was blocked by fairly big boulders. _Damn I knew they warned me about this but really? Ugh._ I reached for the radio between me and Herman. "All units halt, the road's blocked ahead. Stay put and wait for further orders." Herman stopped the humvee a couple of meters from the debris as I announced it in the radio.

"What now sir?" he asked, disappointed.

"Hmm, I wonder..." _The boulders only blocked the road but not up the gentle slope of the hills_ I reached for the radio. "Hey doc, can you ask one of the truck drivers if they'll be able to climb the right side, it looked like it has maybe a twenty degree inclination."

"Yes sir."

I waited for his reply.

"Negative sir, he says its too steep with the amount of load the truck has on right now."

 _Damn._ "Okay, thanks doc. Out."

"What now sir?" Herman asked again.

I put the radio back. "Orders were to turn back if we got blocked, so it looks like..."

 **Whizz... Crack!**

Something warm got splattered all over my face, as I opened my eyes to check what the hell just happened and saw my whole body was covered in red. _What the fuck, blood!?_ I looked towards Herman and saw blood gushing out of his throat that he tried covering it with his hands, at the same time it sounded like he was chocking. _What the fuck is happening._ My heart started racing, everything felt so slow yet so fast. Training kicked in, I immediately went and covered his throat with my hands and tried to apply pressure to somehow stop the bleeding. "Fuck fuck fuck! Dont' die now!"

"Ambush! Contact right!" Klaus shouted as he swung the fifty cal around and started firing but after just a few bursts it went silent and then I heard a loud thump.

I turned my head to the back of the humvee, still holding onto Herman's neck and saw Karl's lifeless body slumped on the seat with a hole right on his face. _Oh god this is not happening now._

 **Whizz whizz whizz... Crack crack... Ping!**

Gunfire, gunfire everywhere. The humvee was unarmoured so the bullets started whizzing inside the humvee.

 **Pak!**

Something hit my helmet knocking me to the side, I tried staying as low as possible within the car. Standard procedure would have us dismount onto the opposite direction from where the fire was coming from and use the vehicles as cover but now...

 **Splat!**

My hands that were still on Herman's throat gave way under his weight as he slumped forward, his head hitting the steering wheel hard. _Fuck!_ I retracted my hands and curled up as best I could and as deep as I could go from my seat, my face looking down to avoid getting injured from shrapnel. At around the same time the unarmoured windshield got shattered as did the windows, sending shards down my way.

 **Pak!**

Another round hit my back which had type four bulletproof ballistic plate inserted in the vest, knocking me around while I was in a fetal position.

It went on for god knows how long and then as quickly as they started, stopped. I gripped my rifle and took it out of safety, I didn't know what to expect. _Should I pop up and check? They could be waiting for me to just do that and pick me off... but if I stay like this and they closed in I'm also dead... choose choose choose!_ Blood was dripping onto me from the dashboard above. _Fuck what should I do?_

I waited and waited for probably just a few seconds. _God... Fuck it!_ _I'm not going down without a fight!_ In breathed in deeply, then popped up from the seat rifle at the ready looking forward and there it is... A man climbing down the boulders holding several sticks of dynamite bundled together. _Wait... green googles, grey clothes... fuck, equalists?! how the hell..._ He froze as he saw me pointing a gun at him, probably scared shitless too.

 **Bang!**

A single shot right in the center mass was all it took for him to go down, I quickly swung to the right and saw dozens of them coming down from the hills. _What the fuck!_ Some of them froze when they heard the shot and saw the guy with the dynamite hit the dirt, others started running towards me. _Wait none of them have guns, just their normal stuff. Fuck, does that mean there's a hell of a lot more of them? Fuck!_

As the running equalists got closer, they're the ones I targeted first. _One... two... three... fou... Gah miss... four!_

 **Click, click**

 _Shit, out of ammo... I need to reload. Fuck, they're still coming!_

 **Pak!**

A round hit Herman's body as I was reloading making me instinctively duck down. _God! They're not done yet!_ I finished reloading and was bout to pop up once more, but then I heard was sounds to be some kind of a bugle. _Oh god, are they sounding some sort of attack signal? I'm so fucked._ I popped back up but managed to fire only a few rounds before being forced down again by what seems to be a lone sniper somewhere on the left of the convoy. _Shit if that guy was on this side he could've killed me long ago!_

The fire intensified, though unlike earlier this one was coming just from one source and was more concentrated rather than sporadic and all over the place. _Shit he really wants me to keep down huh._ I stayed down for a couple of seconds more trying to build up the courage to pop up, but then the fire stopped. _He's reloading, now's my chance._ I got up and readied my rifle, looking down the sights to shoot at... nothing. _They're gone? Was the bugle a retreat?_

"Fuck!"

I got back down. _No it can't be, they won't just leave without finishing their job. No no no, its a trap. They're going to draw me out of the car and then shoot me when I'm out in the open._ I reached for the radio which somehow miraculously escaped any damage, probably because it was shielded by Herman's body.

"All units report!" I shouted at the radio in both English and German but was greeted with silence. _Fuck, are they all dead?_ "All units, report!"

"Its doc! I'm still alive." _Phew, at least he's alive._

"Anyone else?"

"Jackson and Mike, sir. (fifth truck)""Ken, still good. (sixth truck)""Its Eckstein and Wagner sir. (rear humvee)".

"Anyone else?" I said. The radio crackled but nothing came out of it. _Shit, is this all that's left?_ I sighed heavily "Everyone stay where you are and get as low as you could, the firing has stopped but they might still come again, copy?"

"Yes sir." came the reply.

"Good, convoy lead out." I returned the radio to the holder and used the lull in the fight to look around the humvee to see what damage has been done. Blood was everywhere, the shattered glass, the dashboard, seats, hell even the roof, a body beside me slumped onto the steering wheel with blood dripping out from both his throat and a hole on his cheek, and another body in the seat in the back contorted in a very uncomfortable position with a gaping hole where his nose used to be... soaking his face and the his upper uniform in blood, his lifeless bloodied eyes staring into my soul.

Now it was my turn to slump down on my seat panting heavily. I tried to relax but failed, with my whole body still dosed with adrenaline my hands started to shake. _Oh fuck._ My whole body was still tense and soaked in other people's blood, a friend's blood. I sat and waited... waited... but nothing happened. _If they really left then I really need to go and check on the men._ I was about to get out of the humvee but then I remembered something. _You fucking moron! Why the fuck haven't you radioed HQ yet? God!_

* * *

HQ was shocked to learn about the ambush, they're sending three UH-1 Hueys and a Eurocopter Tiger (for escort) to pick us all up and bring some demo guys to blow the trucks up in order to prevent in from falling into the enemy. We're too far away to drive back to base and all of the six survivors are injured one way or another.

I placed the radio down before sighing again, it seemed like I'm the only one unscratched somehow. Dismounting from the humvee I started walking cautiously towards the truck doc's in, the second one, but out of nowhere extreme pain shot up my right leg the moment I took the first step with that leg. "Ahhh! Fuck!" I collapsed down onto the ground, cursing. "Fuuuuuuckkkkkkk!"

I looked down and saw my right leg drenched in blood but the left only having some splatters here and there. I grabbed my right leg with both my hands, going up and down to find where I've been shot.

"There it is." I murmured, feeling a small hole on the right side of the thigh. _Fuck... and I thought I wasn't hit._

"Hey sarge... Sarge!"

I looked to the direction of the convoy and saw Ruderford running towards me, using the trucks as cover.

"Jesus sarge." He exclaimed as he saw the hole and blood on my pants. "Come on get up." He fireman carried me over to the second truck of the convoy before putting me down beside the front left wheel. "So, what did HQ say sarge?"

"They're going to fetch us... nghh" he got his first aid kid out, then proceeded to treat the wound as best he could, he then got a piece of cloth from the truck and wrapped it around the wound. "Where's the rest of the men?"

"Still in their vehicles sir, you did order them not to come out."

"Ahh... nghh. Go get them and form up here." I wearily scanned the hills in front me. "Don't think they're coming back, heh if they did we're still dead anyway."

"Okay sir." He got up and jogged towards the rear of the bullet-ridden convoy while trying to stay low.

 _Heh... fuck me. Wait, Rachel's on this truck right?_ I forced myself to get up and opened the door of the truck and tried painfully to climb up and take a peek inside. I was greeted by a girl lying on her side on the seat with a pool of blood surrounding her head, beside her on the driver's seat was a guy laying back onto the seat, a bullet hole on his forehead and the windshield in front of him, blood splattering all over the rear of the cabin. The whole truck was riddled with bullet holes, its a wonder the engine's still running.

 _Fuck._

I got back down and started hopping with one leg to towards the rear when doc came back with the rest of the survivors. They're badly beaten up.

"Sir..." Eckstein struggled to talk "what... do we do now?"

The gaze of their eyes latched onto me. "We'll..." _need to survive_ "bunker up on the rear humvee since its the least fucked up with the evidence that two guys survived and we'll wait for the evac to come, they told me ETA is about twenty minutes so we'll need to hold out until then. _Shit, from the looks of it Eckstein has a bloodied face while Wagner got shot in the shoulder, and those three red cross guys got shot in the legs and in his side, and two in their arms. They seem patched up though, damn doc was fast... or was I staring at the bodies for far too long?_ "We need to move, now. Follow me." I started hopping towards the rear, but was stopped by Ruderford.

"You're not getting anywhere fast like that, come on I'll help you out." he said, wrapping my right arm over his shoulders.

"Thank I guess."

"Just doing my job sarge, now come on."

We slowly trudged along the convoy before arriving on the humvee.

"Someone get on the fifty cal and take overwatch, the rest try to rest and..." _And what?_ I just let the sentence slide away.

Ruderford took overwatch as he was the least injured among us, just some scratches and bruises here and there. The twenty minutes that he was up there though was tense, we didn't know if the equalists were done or just waiting for the choppers to come and shoot them down. _Now now, calm down Geraldt, calm down._

I sat on the ground with my back leaning against one of the wheels and closed my eyes. _Fuck, how the hell did this happen... the gunfire, it sounded too familiar... That's right, the G36!_ I'll never forget that sound, being years in the army with that weapons its bound to get ingrained in your mind. _But how? How the fuck did they get them? Fuck, my head hurts already._

* * *

" _Charlie eight charlie eight, this is Hotline one, how copy over?"_

The radio in the humvee crackled as we started hearing the sound of choppers inbound, Ruderford got down from the fifty cal and answered it.

"Hotline one this is charlie eight, read you loud and clear."

" _Okay charlie eight, nice to hear your voices, ETA is two minutes."_

"Copy that hotline one."

 _"Affirmitive, hotline one out."_

"You hear that sarge? ETA two minutes."

"Yeah doc, loud and clear." _It was on speakers._

He got back to the fifty cal as I got up and went around the men to see how they're doing which doesn't look very good. The guy that's fucked up the most, Mike, had already lost quite a lot of blood from the wound in his left torso right below the rib cage... he might not survive. The other two volunteers, Jackson and Ken, is fairing better. Eckstein and Wagner, looks ok so far but might get medically discharged from service later on from the looks of their injuries.

"Sarge, the chopper's here!" Ruderford exclaimed.

I clenched my rifle and became more alert, waiting for anything bad to happen but luckily there weren't. The Hueys landed a little to the back and several men dismounted carrying body bags and walked past us going towards the convoy to retrieve the bodies. Several medics with the red cross on their sleeves Mike and Ken onto stretchers while the rest us walked (in my case hopped) into the third Huey with the help of other medics. The stretchers were placed on the floor while the rest of the guys sat down on the benches and strapped in, the medic gave the signal to the pilot as he closed the door and the chopper started gaining altitude.

When we were about a hundred meters up and started banking to the left I looked out the window and saw the bodies being put into the body bags and getting laid on the road in neat rows while a man was writing something down on a clipboard, with the Eurocopter Tiger circling above looking out for them.

I closed my eyes knowing its finally safe to relax and heaved a sigh of relief as it was over, the five odd minutes of death and hell.

* * *

 _Press Report 20 November, 2015_

 _Convoy C8 was ambushed en-route to Makapu Evacuation Center at approximately 1230H local time, thirty two kilometers east of their destination. Members of the escort group as well as the British Red Cross suffered heavy casualties and were eventually evacuated via helicopter from the area and are now back in Guderian Base receiving medical treatment._

 _Reports from the escort group indicates that the terrorist organization known as the 'Equalists' were responsible and manage to procure rifles and large quantities of ammunition to stage the ambush._

 _As of today, two days after the incident, confirmed casualties include twenty three killed and seven wounded during the incident out of thirty personnel in the convoy, the list will be included in the next press report. The bodies retrieved will be sent back to their home nations after the autopsy is completed._

 _United Republic Command_


	12. 111: Meltdown

**BOOK I - UNION**

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Meltdown**

November 21, 2015 0800H United Republic Command Military Hospital (URCMH), Guderian Base

* * *

 _It was a bright, hot day in the middle of the summer as an Afghan family prepared to eat lunch in their modest home. Just a few minutes ago a coalition convoy of three vehicles (two humvees and a big ugly truck which the Americans called MRAPs, Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) just passed through the family_ _'s_ _village in their regular patrol. The soldiers got out of their vehicles and socialized with the villagers, giving the children candies and other sweets, before mounting up once again and going their way._

 _The family had just started eating when they heard an ear-shattering explosion some distance away followed by faint but rapid gunfire. The father knew the day would come and he was prepared for it, he lead his children to safety and called on the other villagers together to see what they should do, should the_ _Taliban_ _succeed in their objective and come for them next... the village that wholeheartedly accepted the protection of the coalition forces._

* * *

 _ **BOOOM!**_

 _A massive explosion rocked the MRAP Corporal Geraldt was in as the lead humvee blew up and went sky-high before coming down with a ear shattering crash. Like the father, he also knew this day would come and was all too happy to be the day he was in the MRAP and not on the lead vehicle as he_ _would_ _normally_ _be assigned at_ _._

 _Most of the men inside including including his squad leader Master Sergeant Gottlieb was shaken but otherwise unhurt. Everything was silent for a_ _split_ _second as they tried to get their bearing before they heard the word that sends chills down any men_ _'s spine._

" _RPG!" said the gunner who, with half his body above the vehicle shouted. He was relatively unhurt because the turret which surrounds him easily prevented any shrapnel from hitting him._

 _In less than a second the grenade whizzed just above the hood of the_ _armored_ _vehicle,_ _narrowly_ _missing it. The grenade came in from the hilly right side of the patrol and left a light smoke trail for the men inside the vehicle to see. It exploded a few hundred meters away in the plains to the left of the patrol harmlessly. Following the RPG was rapid small-arms fire hitting the MRAP_ _,_ _pinging against the vehicle_ _sound_ _ing_ _like pebbles hitting tin can_ _s_ _._

 _Master Sgt. Johann Gottlieb saw the wrecked humvee right in front of the MRAP in his seat beside the driver and understood that with 1st Lt. Heppenheimer dead, he's now in command of the sixteen man patrol. Escaping the ambush in their vehicles was now impossible with the burning humvee blocking the road, as well as the massive hole produced by the IED_ _during_ _the explosion. The sergeant who was usually the one cracking jokes and generally made the atmosphere light and fun now had a veil of concentration and seriousness in his mind as he proceeded to order everyone out of the safety of the MRAP and take cover to the left of the vehicle, opposite of the insurgents and start returning fire._

 _The dismounting was done excellently just like they did hundreds of times during training, with the turret gunners of the two remaining vehicles provide covering and suppressing fire. As the men started returning fire into the hills Sgt. Gottlieb told the radioman to call for support, artillery was not possible since they were too far from any fire bases, additional ground units were also not an option also because of being too far from a base, what's left is a CAS (close air support) mission. The radioman who is just eighteen and straight out of training complied and after taking his map out started talking into_ _the radio set in the MRAP_ _. God knows how the hell he even got assigned to a veteran squad like Geraldt's but the kid gave a reason which most of them would forget within days._

 _The kid started out talking in German but after a couple of sentences switched to English. He continued talking, giving them the coordinates, mission info and all that other good stuff, but as he continued talking with bullets whizzing over their heads his calm consistent demeanor started giving way to a incomprehensible and panicky rabble, shouting at the radio for support._

 _It didn't take long for the sergeant to notice and he yanked the radio away from the kid and started talking to whoever was on the other side of the connection while the original radioman was shaking, probably because its his fire time in action and it was an ambush that they may not get out alive._

 _While that was going on the rest of the patrol continued engaging the insurgents. Geraldt was_ _ordered by Sgt. Gottlieb to organize the defense while he deal_ _t_ _with calling air support_ _, as the second in command right now Geraldt quickly set the men onto their positions and to just hold out until CAS arrived._

 _The CAS mission was simple: bomb/strafe the insurgents that are attacking the patrol, with friendlies marked with green flares. Two American A-10 Warthogs who were loitering in the air close by was dispatched to this 'danger close' mission. Within a few minutes the two planes dropped from their cruising altitude down to just two thousand feet and screamed through the air trying to get to the ambush zone as quickly as possible. By the time they reached it a full firefight was happening down in the zone and the pilots could see the many flashes of the guns, as well as the green flare. They lined up their planes to their targets_ _and went into a shallow ten degree dive_ _sending_ _several unguided bombs into the insurgents, the pulled out of their shallow dive, gained altitude, and then looped around to go for another run, this time they used their big thirty millimeter GAU-8 Avenger and strafed the insurgent positions, the force of the rounds hitting the ground throwing up dust and covered the target area._

 _ **BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRT!**_

 _The patrol cheered when they heard the unmistakable sound of death and hope as the A-10s came in in a shallow dive and seeing smoke come out of its nose but not before three more of their men fell victim to the ambush. They know that with two Warthogs up in the sky there is no possibility that the insurgents can swarm and destroy them anymore. Gunfire died down quickly afterwards as the insurgents pulled back knowing that the fight is lost for them. The A-10s continued flying above the stricken patrol like a mother looking out for its children, looking out for enemies like birds of prey._

 _Medevac helicopters arrived later on, evacuating the wounded as well as the dead. Geraldt help them recover the body parts thrown all over the place when the lead humvee exploded, putting bloodied and severed limbs into bags to be_ _hopefully_ _identified_ _later_ _and sent back home. A bloody business that he would rather forget._

 _As the sun set_ _s_ _in Kandahar, Afghanistan the survivors of the patrol returned to their base in the two remaining vehicles, all gloomy and sick to what just happened a few hours ago. Seven of the sixteen men in the patrol were killed with two more wounded._

 _It was the day that Geraldt would never forget but it looked like just over a year after the incident another one, with far more consequences occurred in a place no one even knew existed during his time in Afghanistan._

* * *

"Hey, you awake?" a soft female voice startled me hen she waved her brown hands around my face as I was staring blanky into the white hospital ceiling. "this is the second time you've been sent to the hospital in as many weeks, that should be a record huh?" she chucked.

I composed myself, trying to forget whatever the hell the flashback train of thought was supposed to imply and replied. "Oh hey Korra, fancy seeing you here."

"So you ARE awake! How you feeling?"

I turned my head over to look at her, she was wearing her normal dark blue water tribe outfit and was sitting on a chair beside the bed. "Better, there isn't a big ass hole in my thigh anymore."

She gave a hearty laugh. "Yep, thanks to the healers who closed up the wound after your doctors removed the bullet. Thought I'm not sure why they're still not releasing you yet and keeping you cooped up in this room, its completely healed already!"

 _Yeah, I was like good to go in just a few hours._

"Old habits die hard I guess, not that the doctors don't trust the skills of the water benders."

"Sure they do" She smirked then stood up, stretching "Anyways do you know how famous... or should I say infamous you are right now?"

"Well, being in charge of a unit that almost got wiped out... I can imagine."

"Your name's almost in every newspaper in Republic City and its selling like hotcakes in winter."

"Yeah." I grimaced before closing my eyes and relaxing.

Korra sat back down and sighed. "How are you feeling?"

I opened an eye to look at her. "Better." I repeated.

"No." she said. "I mean, like in your mind."

The room fell silent for over a minute. I stared at the ceiling thinking how did I actually feel.

I shoot her a look "How would you feel if three fourths of your friends gets killed right before you?"

"Oh... sorry." She looked like she felt very very bad asking that question, holding both her hands together on her lap.

"Nah don't be" I tried laughing it off "People are instinctively curious about things they don't know, its natural to ask people questions like that. Some take it alright..." _like me_ "while others won't be too okay, it depends on the person."

"..."

"Eh come on now, so how you been doing?"

"I'm fine too Geraldt." She looked at her watch and sighed. "I got to go, its eight ten and I have some meetings to go to."

'Meetings', that got me interested as I raised an eyebrow. "Like the shady government kind or the not so shady business one?"

She let out a laugh "Its diplomacy stuff but its not shady, well at least I think it isn't."

We both chuckled.

Korra continued "Like it or not being the Avatar meant keeping balance to the four nations which leads to me needing to do some politics. Its not pretty."

"Politics never is." I sat up from the bed, still in my hospital gown, and stretched... smirking "I'm going to take a shit, feel free to leave since its going to take a while."

"Mmm, okay. See you tomorrow?"

"Yeah" I said as I got out of the bed and head to the bathroom. "They're discharging me from the hospital tomorrow, they also gave me a two day leave."

"Okay, good bye then." She walk towards me and gave me a hug before leaving the room.

Funny thing about the whole thing with the hospital is that I got a private room while the rest of the men were in the medical ward where the soldiers were meant to be anyways. Even when the hospital was more or less operating at max capacity treating the civilians affected by the earthquake, there was still room for me to be placed there. I just wanted to be with my men to raise their morale even when they're more or less incapacitated but HQ thought otherwise. 'You're a special case' they said, 'you might get an ambush interview by the press' they said, whatever the reason it really was more comfortable to have privacy of a room being able to jack off... I mean being able to do things without other people judging.

Even if they segregated me from my men HQ did let me visit them two days after the attack, the same day they released their press report about the ambush. Eckstein got concussion which was severe enough that he will be medically discharged from the army but thankfully not bad enough that it fucked with his mind. Wagner got a shattered right collar bone which got patched up by the army doctors, full recovery of his right arm would take at least twelve weeks so he'll be out of action for that duration, possibly be given a medical discharge also. Lastly we have Ruderford who at first glance doesn't even look a little bit injured, the most injury he got was some bruises and cuts which was easily patched up by the healers like within an hour of us arriving at the hospital.

"One more day" I murmured while taking a shit. "and I'll be out there."

To be honest my injuries weren't even that bad since the bullet ( 5.56x45mm NATO) hit my meaty lower right thigh, far from the femur. I remembered that when we landed at the hospital three days ago my whole body was exhausted just from having to fight the pain in the twenty-odd minute flight, during and immediately after the battle my body was pumped with adrenaline and endorphin dulling the pain but about half way in the flight both the adrenaline and the endorphin dissipated and BOOM comes the pain. I was placed in a stretcher and rushed to the emergency room and was then knocked out with anesthesia while the army doctors sterilized the area and removed the bullet, then skilled healers closed the wound and remarkably left only a tiny brownish spot as a scar as opposed to having a big brown spot using out modern methods.

I flushed the toilet after finishing and then got back to bed not because I'm tired, but because I've got nothing to do. They didn't install wi-fi and tv in the hospital and even if they did HQ would most definitely not let me use them to prevent me 'leaking' sensitive information.

 _I wonder..._ I thought as I toil around on the bed. _What's_ _their_ _next move?_

* * *

November 22, 2015 1000H Republic City, City Hall

"Holy shit, I mean wow... I didn't think there are going to be THIS many people... Jesus Christ holy shit..."

"Ahem, care to tell me what you're mumbling about?" Korra elbowed my arm hard.

 _Oh shit right, I was talking to myself in German._ "I was saying" I started again in Mandarin "that I didn't think there are this many people here for the rally."

"Oh yeah, I didn't think there'll be this much either." she shrugged.

The both of us were standing on the sidewalk of the main avenue that leads directly towards the building, packed with protesters and the RCPD blocking them just a few paces away from the steps of the city hall itself. The protesters had earthbent a portion of the road in the middle of the crowd into a small platform with some guy wearing a not so expensive looking suit with a bowler hat standing on top shouting something with a megaphone towards the crowd which looked like middle class citizens... yes, a modern megaphone. Kind of makes you wonder how much the locals have really integrated with modern technology.

Several buildings around the avenue were collapsed with rubble spewing onto the streets and a few more with large cracks on its walls looking as if it would collapse at any time. The protesters seemed to be distributing the rubble from the collapsed buildings throughout their earth bending ranks as if they're getting ready for a fight.

Korra tried getting my attention, pointing towards the rear of the police lines "Hey we can ask Lin, I think she's in the city hall."

"Lin Beifong the chief of police?" I asked _The grumpy old woman?_

"Yeah, come on." She tugged my arm, trying to force me go with her.

"I rather not get involved in whatever's happening here, we're just passing by remember?" _So much for two days of leave_.

She turned around and frowned, looking down to my shoes then up to my head "You're wearing an 'average Republic City civilian clothes with an inconspicuous backpack' right?"

"To blend in and not get attention or trouble!" I almost shrieked "But now you specifically want me to go towards trouble."

She grinned all of a sudden. _Aww shit_ "You arn't here just because you're on leave arn't you?"

"Uhh, what do you mean?"

We started raising our voices as the protesters got noisier and more agitated.

"They won't be letting you roam the city for two days without getting something in return." _Really? Jesus, I'm not a bloody spy, even if I wanted to they wouldn't let me... I'm not that good_

"What? Oh come on, they could easily get the information they wanted even if I don't exist. Do you even know how many spies and agents they have crawling throughout the place?"

"How many?" She's smirking now.

"I don't... know. What the hell, why are we even talking about this." I started looking around to see if anyone heard, thankfully no one was close enough.

"You started it" She laughed. "Now come on lets go, don't be a pussy about it."

"Ugh, goddamned it Korra. I'm going to get fucked if HQ knew I'm involved in this." I loosened my stance and slowly let her drag me.

"Nah they won't know, I'll make sure about that." She said fiercely. _Hope you can keep your promises Korra_

We tried to make our way around the crowd but failed spectacularly the moment a person recognized Korra under her long overcoat and a parka-like hat, they pretty much started ganging up on us shouting and pleading for us to help them deal with the police.

"Why the hell are they even here?" I asked aloud.

Korra was in front of me when she replied looking forward. "I'm not sure, that's why we're going to Lin." _Hmph, at least I'm still incognito._

We pushed our way through the crowd but it kept getting harder and harder the longer it took, it had the domino effect when a person saw us and then told the other people around that person about it, they pass it along the crowd and then in a short span of time most people knew we were there.

It took another few minutes before we shoved our way through the crowd and arrived at the police line that was severely undermanned against such a large crowd: a single line of officers with almost one and a half meter space in between each man.

"Avatar Korra!" One of the officers exclaimed, seeing us walk towards them through the crowd "We didn't know you were coming"

"Well we didn't either." she replied looking at me then walked towards the officer. "Look officer do you know where Chief Beifong is?"

"She's busy at the moment talking with President Raiko in the city hall." he said with a stoic face

"Okay, lets go." Korra tugged my arm again, heading into the police line but got stopped by the officer.

"Avatar Korra you can't just walk in like that! And who's he?" the officer pointed at me. _Yes! I'm still incognito, thank god HQ didn't release a photo of me or they'll all recognize me instantly even if I look East Asian._

"He's a friend." she shot back "Now look officer, if I can talk to the chief I'll be able to help you guys deal with this."

The officer hesitantly hummed, before nodding. "Okay, but your friend can't go in with you. We're not just going to let anyone in willy-nilly" _oh my god they used willy-nilly, it sounds so wrong not in English_

"Hmph! Fine" She exclaimed. She then said to me "just stay here for a moment, I'll go talk to Lin."

I shrugged "Uh sure."

She pat my shoulders and said "later" then walked into the city hall awkwardly leaving me on the steps with the officer.

"Um, hi?" I said, not sure if he'll smack my head or just be irritated by the avatar's friend.

He raised an eyebrow "So you're the avatar's friend huh? Never seen you before."

"Well..." I tilted my head awkwardly "I just got acquainted to her recently"

"Ah." Was all he said.

While there was a somewhat awkward silence I scanned the area, both the police lines and the protesters. I discovered that there were more or less just over a hundred officers spread out in front of the city hall with traffic barriers in front of them to mark the extent of where the protesters are allowed to be. The officers all wore the metal bending armor so I assume they're all metal benders. There are a few other officers here and there behind the main line which looked higher ranked than the officers in the line, the doors to the city hall itself was guarded by what looks to be their version of the Secret Service wearing black suits and bow ties... Ha! They looked like they're ripping the Secret Service off, they even got sunglasses on but no fancy earphones though.

The protesters though, they don't look like a mass of poor uneducated people who came to protest because they blindly follow their favorite politician. No, they looked like middle-class people with a stable job through the way they dress and the way they have acted so far... when they ganged up on us they didn't fuck us over or anything, in fact they respected us and let us pass without making a fuss about it. The only reason we needed to shove was because there was just too many people around.

"So why are they protesting?" I pointed towards the crowd, asking the officer.

"Well" he wanted to scratch the back of his head but instead hit his helmet. "They wanted to like... get rid of those white people who came through the portal." _Uh oh, this is not good_.

"Have they told you why?" About the same time, the crowd started to quiet down."

"Lah Chang, the leader right over there" he pointed towards the earth platform "said that those white people angered the gods for unbalancing the four nations, that's why the earthquake happened. At the same time the white people sell their stuff pretty cheaply causing quite a lot of local businesses to go out of business."

 _Oh god, we really did fuck up the local economy._

"Do you know how many are out there?" I asked.

He was looking out towards the crowd and said under his breath. "We estimated them to be around two thousand? Not really sure though." He suddenly turned around looking alarmed "Are you a journalist?"

I shook my head "No."

He looked at me somewhat unconvinced but he let it slip and sighed. "Alright, I trust the avatar's choice of friends." _That sounds... I don't know, wrong?_

We descended into silence once again, after about five minutes or so the crowd started to become restless.

"What's happening?" I asked the officer.

"I don't know, but it doesn't look good."

We both could see that the guy Lah Chang who's still talking through the megaphone until now is in fact stirring the crowd up. Its as if he's pumping the crowd up for a confrontation.

"Officer, is this protest like legal?"

"Technically no, they didn't secure a permit from the city hall but with the police department so undermanned because of the earthquake, we don't have the manpower do disperse them. All we can do for now is to keep them out of the building." _Oh god this is bad._

"Is this supposed to be a peaceful rally?"

"Uh..."

I could see the confusion, then a bit of horror in his face.

"I... we don't know, they haven't done anything wrong so far... well apart from the gathering itself and earth bending a platform." _Oh god these people are clueless._

"Officer, when was the last time there were large protests in this city?" I sounded more desperate than I should be.

"It was about five years ago, it wasn't a good time when Tarrlok was around."

 _Tarrlok... Tarrlok... I remember that name from one of the papers I read before... ah right! The councilman who turned out to be a bad guy or something. That was right before the Equalist Revolution._

"Oh shit." the officer muttered. "Oh shit oh shit oh shit... Captain!" he shouted towards the other officer who was standing just behind us.

"Tell your men to hold their positions sergeant and get that civilian out of here. I don't care if he's the avatar's friend or not" he captain ordered. _Oh god, shit's about to go down._

"Yes sir!" he replied to the captain before turning towards me. "Come on I'll get you out, we'll just inform Avatar Korra later. This is getting far too dangerous for you to be here."

I pointed towards the crowd which begun moving and had more or less surrounded the front of the city hall, creating a semi-circle in front with only a few traffic barriers separating them from the police. "Too late."

The sergeant looked mortified when he realized what's happening but thankfully didn't panic, he immediately ordered me up the steps and go as close towards the guards before he started cursing loud enough for me to hear initially, but not loud enough for the captain to hear. _I've got contact Korra somehow... Fuck._

The noise... the noise is just so loud. Two thousand people shouting in unison. Two thousand enraged people. I never thought two thousand people could produce so much noise, I went to concerts with far more people and it wasn't this loud, and the concert was even indoors!

The police was in dire situation, surrounded and with no reinforcements. They hastily bent an earth wall about waist high, the captain came forward started shouting something at the protesters only to dodge a piece of rubble that came flying his way.

I reached for a two-way radio I brought with me in my bag with the intent of contacting HQ of how fucked I am. The two guards were eyeing me intently while I was shuffling through my bag trying to find the radio when I heard glass shattering something that sounded like a flamethrower flying right above me. _Ah, its Korra._

She flew through the air using fire bending and landed elegantly just behind the waist hight wall in the midst of the other officers. She straightened herself up before she started saying something towards the protesters. The unimaginably loud noise began to die down as she continued talking. _Wow, people really trust her huh._

Suddenly, I could hear a faint robotic voice that would have been produced by a half-broken megaphone talking and I could immediately see the shift in Korra's stance from 'okay let's talk this out' to 'you wanna fight huh punk?'.

She started to glow white and within a few seconds a thundering disembodied voice boomed throughout the avenue "GO HOME."

The crowd became quiet with only the circling winds of Korra's avatar state making noise.

"GO HOME" she boomed once more.

The crowd wavered. One by one starting from the back people turned around and walked away. Lah Chang tried to rally them but in only a matter of minutes was left with only his core supporters, about two hundred or so strong. The ones that left simply disappeared into the ruins of the city. _That's... strange. They left the area so quickly and without fuss._

"We will not leave until our demands are at least heard!" Someone in the crowd shouted.

There was a lull in everything happening and during that small time Korra got out of the avatar state. "What do you want?"

"First, we want the United Republic to reimburse the businesses that were severely affected by those _Germans._ " he said with distain. "Second, we want to..."

"Avatar Korra." the piercing voice of an old woman reverberated behind me. I was surprised to see Lin Beifong when I turned around to look and she looked pretty pissed. "Let me handle this."

Korra looked at her somewhat irritated but did not object, she walked back towards me as Lin went forward into the crowd. "Alright Lah Chang spit it out, what the hell do you want?"

"Chief Beifong" He started, fixing his suit. "Our demands are just simple, all we want is for the government to not forget about their citizens when they're dealing with those _Germans._ "

"Noted, anything else?" Lin asked, standing face to face with the short stubby man.

"We would like to have a meeting to list our demands Chief Beifong."

Based on her body language Lin isn't very happy about what the man said. "I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you Chief."

"Now" Lin scanned the protesters "Please tell them to go home, we are still very much busy helping people who were affected by the earthquake."

"Very well chief, but remember what I asked you for."

"Fine."

The man bowed respectfully and then said something to the crowd in which they dispersed, with Lah Chang disappearing with them.

* * *

November 25, 2015 0900H General's office, HQ, Guderian Base

"Is that all staff sergeant?" General Braun asked after reading the report I compiled about what I saw during my leave. I wasn't supposed to do that but since I've seen so much shit in the two days I was in Republic City, I though the information would be invaluable to the army.

It had been quite a while since the last time I got to the general's office, he had furnished it quite beautifully and had several more file cabinets than I remembered. The general himself looked older and a lot thinner than before, maybe because of stress.

"Yes sir." I replied.

He placed all the papers back into the folder and placed it into one of the table's drawers.

"I would like to hear your opinion on Future Industries staff sergeant." He placed both his hands onto the table like a student ready to listen attentively.

I hesitated. "Uhh, well sir, the company's okay I guess?"

"Let me reword that, what do you think of their production? Their staff, management? That sort of things."

"Ah." I stroked my chin. _Goddamned it, its already in the report_ "Production wise they've learned quite a lot from our car manufacturers and their output is going up. Staff and management are fairly solid with minimal corruption, Ms. Sato's doing quite a hell of a job keeping morale up. What else..." My fingers tapped against the table "Most of the workers are pretty favourable towards us, sir."

"I see. How about Avatar Korra, how's she doing?"

"She's fine sir."

"Hmm, the way she handled the protesters were quite professional don't you think?"

"She IS a professional sir."

He laughed. "I know, I know." He took deep breaths to calm himself down. "Listen, you are the closet person to her from our world. You're pretty important."

"I know sir."

He watched me closely for several seconds as if scrutinizing a painting for errors. When he was done, he said "We'll be having a meeting at thirteen hundred hours later with President Raiko at the conference room below, I'd like you to join."

"Uh sir, I think that's outside of my..."

"That's an order staff sergeant." He interrupted with a stern tone, surprising me.

"Yes sir... may I know why?"

He leaned back onto his chair, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Not yet, but you'll know." _Oh, okay then._ He probably took my silence as a yes. "Any more questions staff sergeant?"

"No sir."

He waved me off "Very well, dismissed."

* * *

November 25, 2015 2345H Infantry barracks Block 2-B, Guderian Base.

God the meeting was hell, almost everyone used flowery diplomatic language to talk to each other and I'm still at awe of how those professional translators manage to translate not just the meaning of the sentence, but even those useless words too.

The gist of the meeting is that... surprise surprise, people hated us! Like, they hate us enough to try and incite a civil war of some sorts. President Raiko was present and a few of his ministers, as well as General Braun and his staff.

What did genuinely surprised me was that President Raiko disclosed that there were talks of rebellion within his government ever since we (the Germans) built the now small town of Deutschstadt and completed Guderian Base. They saw it as us trampling on their independence and we're making the United Republic's government kneel before us. _Well if you think about it, that sounds about right._

He further disclosed that the newly formed Earth Republic actually supports the discontented senators and other government officials and have received reports that the Earth Republic might actually be funding what's left of the Equalists to destabilize the already unstable country in the wake of the devastating earthquake.

It surprised me how dire the situation the United Republic is in right now, what also surprised me was General Braun's reaction to all the things Raiko said. Its as if he already knew all the things that were happening within the United Republic and possibly even more.

So much stuff were circling inside my head that I wasn't able to sleep, I check the time on my watch and saw that its already midnight when lights out was two hours ago and that I should've been fast asleep right now. The idea that Germany might actually get dragged into a civil war on another world is quite a scary prospect and something that just won't easily get off my mind. The idea that we might need to face off with the Earth Republic is something far scarier than it sounds, they're the China of this world with almost unlimited manpower and a new government that's eager to prove that they're not to be trifled with.

It wasn't like in our world where after the second world war, Japan and Germany were occupied and have their constitutions written by victors. No, in this world after the collapse of the Earth Empire under Kuvira and the birth of the Earth Republic, they were able to keep their independence and more or less their army intact. An army that is far larger than anything the United Republic can mobilize.

Thoughts like that continuously invade my mind before I finally fell asleep quite a while later. I really really hope that this wouldn't be another world war in their world, with the previous one being the Hundred Years War. One is enough, they don't need to go through it again.

* * *

December 8, 2015 1230H Canteen 2, Guderian Base

The daily lunch in one of the canteens in the base was interrupted by a news flash on the televisions mounted on the walls. It was the Armee Nachrichten (army news), created and funded by the United Republic Command to inform the men deployed in Guderian Base on what's happening back at home and in this world. Even though its obviously biased and censored, it still gives the men quite a good picture of what's happening outside the small world that we live in.

I was eating lunch with Ruderford (he was discharged from the hospital a few days ago) and several dozen other men when the news flash came on the television. Everybody stopped dead in their tracks when the news anchors announced that the opposition party of the United Republic had just resigned from their posts in the government and announced that they're forming a new government to the south-east of the country with the city of Xi Hai (third largest in the country) as their capital.

They accused Raiko's government of letting their own interests come before that of the people and the 'fact' that they supported the Germans in unbalancing the status quo of the four nations (five technically) making the spirits angry and thus create the earthquake that devastated the regions surrounding Republic City. They also accused practically every person who supported the Germans for putting money before their own country and their fellow countrymen, explicitly naming companies like Future Industries in putting other businesses out.

I was expecting them to bash Korra also but they didn't. Instead, they actually asked Avatar Korra to resolve the issue without further bloodshed and to 'let those white people pay for their wrongdoings'. The new government calling themselves the 'Righteous Republic of the South' gave the United Republic forty eight hours to make us (Germans) go back to our world, close the portal, and make everything back to how it was before. If the United Republic were to ignore their demands, then they will declare war to overthrow the current government with support of the Earth Republic... wait what?

So it was true, the Earth Republic really wanted us gone. It wasn't really that unexpected but having it announced throughout the world was odd, as if they're using them as a threat... like America using aircraft carrier diplomacy to make weaker countries do as they want.

The news ended with the Righteous Republic announcing their president new, Lah Chang _Again, not really a surprise._ and other diplomatic mumbo-jumbo that I didn't really care about.

 _So shit's going down huh, wow is it fast. It was only a little over two weeks ago that Raiko told us that their government was pretty fractured but having gone into a full blown civil war already... jeez, even the First World War took a month or so between the assassination and the declarations of war. I wonder when the gears of war started turning and lead to this._

* * *

Staff Sergeant Geraldt Tchaikovsky, OR-6, finished his lunch and went back to the barracks with Corporal Walter Ruderford, OR-4. They separated when they arrived at Geraldt's room and after he settled down, he took out his laptop and begun writing.

He had already written quite a lot, from the first time he entered this world almost nine months ago up until the deadly ambush that wrecked havoc. He didn't have the best writing skill there are but he planned to write it as some sort of diary to be publish after he retired from the army with the burden of cleaning up his mess lying on the editors. He planned it to become some sort of memoirs from the man who discovered the portal in Hürtgenwald and who would (hopefully) survive the oncoming war. After typing down what had just transpired in the canteen he layed down on the bed and rested his eyes and tried to think of reasons that the German Parliament would have to give to the public and the international community back home for the Bundeswehr to interfere in a civil war on another world.

 _Something's not adding up_ He thought. _There's no possible way that Germany could get dragged into this war, its just not possible under the constitution, unless..._ He jumped up from his bed with realizations hitting him like a truck. _Unless they didn't tell us anything about it._ Of course they didn't! There were a lot the Armee Nachrichten don't tell the soldiers, and political development that didn't go with the army's views were one of them.

He wanted to go and ask Korra what she will and could do but though otherwise, he thought _Korra would be in quite a lot of shit right now... damn, hope she'll come out of this alright._ Nonetheless Geraldt assume that the army would make some sort of announcement any day now regarding their participation in the war upcoming war and he hopes that no other countries back home get dragged into it, for it might create a third world war there.

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 **Note: 3** **rd** **person perspective starts next chapter... Sorry if I butchered the last parts of this chapter but I've got really really bored of having just 1 character tell the story when I envisioned it be all epic and shit.**


End file.
